


Clara and Me : Adventures in Time - Episode One - Paperchase

by ClaraAndMeAIT



Series: Clara and Me - Adventures in Time [1]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Buildings, Clashildr, Diner TARDIS - Freeform, Episode: s09e12 Hell Bent, Escape, Exploring, Fighting, Gen, London, Monsters, Mystery, Plot Twists, Post-Episode: s09e12 Hell Bent, Rescue, Running, Shooting, Spoilers for Episode: s09e12 Hell Bent, Tea, What Clara and Ashildr did next, falling, property
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-08
Updated: 2016-03-06
Packaged: 2018-05-19 16:03:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 30
Words: 44,167
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5973463
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ClaraAndMeAIT/pseuds/ClaraAndMeAIT
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The first episode of this follows immediately after Hell Bent (S09e12)</p><p>Set in present day London. Clara goes home and finds things are not quite as they seem. When Clara is kidnapped it's up to Ashildr to find her, but unable to fly the TARDIS and no clues other than a mysterious message from a nearby building, she has to embark on a journey that could put her in grave danger. </p><p>Where is Clara, who/what has taken her and what are they really after? </p><p>Lots of action, suspense and adventure - a few twists and turns as well.</p><p>Enjoy!</p><p>(This is also available on my Fanfiction.com account - same user name)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1 - Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> I cannot take any credit for the first chapter as I've used some of the dialogue from Hell Bent, although I've made some of the background things fit my story to set it up.
> 
> All credit Steven Moffat etc.
> 
> Lots of spoilers!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter summarises what happened in Hell Bent.
> 
> I cannot take any credit for the dialogue - that goes to the excellent Steven Moffatt
> 
> I have tweaked it a little to fit in with my story.

The Doctor walked through the door into the diner below the rusting sign saying ‘Drinks and Gas’. He was in the middle of the Nevada desert, and this was the only building he had seen for hours. He edged in the stiff door and made his way across the black and white chequered floor towards a red leather bar stool, holding his red guitar slung down across one shoulder, a large rucksack on the other. The waitress dressed in a sky blue tunic and white apron faced away from him sat on the counter, busy writing orders, although the place was deserted. She had mid-length brown hair, tied up slightly. Music played quietly from a neon jukebox by the front door. She turned around to look at him.

“Hi,” she said breezily, hopping down from the counter and turning to face him. “What can I get you?”

“I don’t have any money,” he said quietly, “but I play.” He held his guitar up in his right hand, looking at her through dark sunglasses.

The waitress looked momentarily confused, “Ok.” She smiled at him.

The Doctor moved to sit on the red bar stool opposite her, sitting his guitar on his lap and removed his sunglasses carefully to the counter where they made a soft whirr. He set his bag gently on the chair next to him.

“Don’t you need to plug that thing in?” the waitress said nodding towards his guitar, leaning lazily on the counter towards him, leafing through the last pages of a magazine.

“You’re English,” he said.

“You’re not,” she replied tensely.

“How did you get out here?” He looked at her with curious eyes.

“Magic,” she replied looking back down at the magazine. “Or maybe I went to an airport and caught a plane,” she said with the faintest hint of sarcasm.

“Ah,” the Doctor sighed with a wide painful smile.

“You?” she asked.

“Oh,” he paused, mirroring her earlier tone, “magic.” He touched his sunglasses and then the nearby radio crackled to life with the sound of his guitar as he strummed the strings.

The waitress looked on with wonder, “I believe you.” She alternated nonchalant looks between him and her magazine. “You been travelling?” she said as she continued reading.

“Yeah, from time to time,” he looked at her, hoping for her attention. When she continued reading, he played a few chords and a melancholy melody on his red guitar.

She stopped reading, captured by the tune. “Is it a sad song?”

“Nothing’s sad til it’s over. Then everything is.” He continued, playing the same tune but in a marginally major key this time, and she was clearly captured by it.

“What’s it called?” she asked.

He finished the end of his melody. “I think it’s called,” he paused, allowing the last note to hang in the air faintly, “Clara.”

She looked up from her magazine, intrigued, smiled a wide smile, looking at the man with large brown eyes. “Tell me about her.”

“I travelled with her,” he looked down at his sunglasses lying on the counter. “We had extraordinary adventures, she trusted me to look after her and I let her die. I watched her die.”

He paused, trying to think what to say. He thought about his words for ten seconds, a searching look on his face. “Could I have a lemonade?”

The waitress looked confused, suddenly stood up lifting her elbows off the counter and turning round towards the drink bar behind her. She was taken aback by the question, and replied curtly, “of course, you like a cliff hanger don’t you?”

The Doctor had a perplexed look upon his face as she turned back with two large clear glasses and set them down on the counter. She poured the homemade lemonade from a large jug into both cups, and placed a red and white paper straw in after. She put two straws in hers.

“What did you do?” she asked tentatively.

The Doctor looked away out of the door. “I waited, a very long time,” he paused, exhaling, “to go back to those that took her away and find a way to bring her back.”

“Who were they?”

“My people, but in doing that I put myself at risk, I was, I am, a wanted man”

“So you went back to your home town –”

“Something like that,” he interrupted her.

“Glasgow?” she enquired, recognising his accent.

“Err, well, sort of Glasgow. Space Glasgow”

“And there was this gang boss who wanted to kill you?” She was hooked now.

“Wanted to, yeah,” he said whilst nodding his head intensely.

“Is this a story or did this really happen?” she asked, propping her head up with her hands on the counter. Her eyes were glinting in the lights, wide and curious.

“Every story ever told really happened,” he paused, looking down at his glass. “Stories,” he paused wearily again, “are where memories go when they’re forgotten.” He looked up at her, her face exactly opposite and much closer than before, eyes blinking heavy with mascara, and an intrigued smile.

“I killed this, this, gang boss, as you say, in order to get her back. I shot him.”

“This Clara person, you must really like her.”

“Why do you say that?”

“You killed a man.” She let that hang for a second, “you don’t seem the type.” 

“Maybe,” he trailed off.

The Doctor interlocked his fingers, looking down at them, lost in his own thoughts.

She looked at him, watching him repressing all his emotions.

The Doctor shook his head. “I took it, the neuro. It was the only way.”

She took a sip of her lemonade and played with the straws between her fingers. “So what was it, the thing you took?”

“There was only one way to keep Clara safe. I had to wipe some of her memory”

“Of what?” She continued spinning the straw in the glass unwittingly.

“Of me.”

She half smiled back at him, looking straight into his eyes.

“Except it didn’t work, it was me who forgot.”

The waitress looked puzzled, “It doesn’t sound like you’ve forgotten.”

“When something goes missing you can always recreate it by the hole it left. I know her name was Clara, I know we travelled together. I know there was an Ice warrior on a submarine and a mummy in the Orient Express.”

The waitress smiled, the lights reflected in her dark brown eyes as she begun to feel moisture collecting in the corners of them.

He leaned back in his chair, “I know we sat together in the Cloisters and she told me something very important, but I have no idea what she said, or what she looked like, or how she talked, or laughed.” He shrugged, “There’s nothing there. Just nothing.”

The waitress’s smile had faded, her eyes were about to drop a tear from one side. She swallowed the lump in her throat and without blinking chose her words carefully, to disguise her emotions.

“Are you looking for her?”

He looked to his right, out towards the desert, looked back at her and sighed. “I’m trying.”

“She could be anyone, right? You don’t know who you are looking for. I mean, she could be me for all you know.” She gazed willingly at him.

“There’s one thing I know about her, just one thing,” he paused again, “if I met her again I would absolutely know.”

The waitress choked back the lump in her throat, and tightened her lips to stop her chin giving away her pain.

“I think that we were here, you know?” 

The Doctor stood up, turned around and looked down to one of the empty tables behind him. The waitress stood up and turned her back on him, holding the back of her hand up to her face to wipe away a stray tear. 

“I think that we were here together once. I’m sure I’ll remember. Over here,” he held his hands out towards the table, the guitar hanging limply. “Stupid Doctor! Amy and Rory! It was Amy and Rory.”

The waitress turned back to him, biting her lip.

“What about your TARDIS?” she said whilst wiping the last of a small tear from the side of her nose, “Have you found that yet?”

“No,” he said sharply. “Somebody’s moved it from London, still looking.” He looked around the diner with confusion, “But this diner, it was always here wasn’t it? It used to be on the other side of the hill-”

“Well maybe someone will find your TARDIS for you,” she interrupted. She then turned away from him with a smile that gave her dimples but with sad tearful eyes. She walked from behind the counter towards the door at the back of the restaurant. As she did this, the Doctor began playing the melancholy song again in slow strums, and as she placed her hand on the metal handle to pull open the door she paused and turned back towards him.

“What Clara told you in the Cloisters-”

“I don’t remember a thing about it,” he interrupted, immediately stopping his song.

“You said memories,” she paused slightly, emotional through tears but keeping the smile on her face, “become stories when we forget them. Maybe some of them become songs.”

He smiled at her kindly and resumed playing. “That would be nice,” he said. The Doctor then turned away from her.

She waited, still holding the door, and then said, “Yeah it would be, wouldn’t it?” 

Clara paused to take one last look at him, tall, backlit again the glass front door leading out to the desert playing his sad tune and it floating through the air. She nodded to herself and then went through the door, keeping her eyes on him until she was inside. Ashildr was there waiting for her. The door shut softly, automatically, behind her as she walked into the gleaming white TARDIS console room where the Doctor had laid on the floor, his memory wiped completely of her.

The Doctor struck his final ringing note as the diner faded around him. He found himself in the desert next to his beloved TARDIS, covered in floral graffiti and a faint portrait of a woman, unable to make it out. He went inside and looked around, the light cascading in from outside. He walked to the back where on a chalk board it was written, “Run you clever boy, and be a Doctor.” He changed his jacket and snapped his fingers to close the door, ready to start a new adventure. As he left the graffiti burnt off, leaving Clara’s portrait a collection of tattered ashes on the dusty desert floor.

*****

“I don’t think I’ve got the Chameleon circuit working,” said Ashildr, inside the console room. “The outer shell might be stuck as an American diner.”

Clara grinned cheekily and then paused slightly, “Awesome”.

“Still no pulse?”

Clara shook her head neatly. She looked at Ashildr, “Time isn’t healing. I am still frozen”

“You know what that means-”

“It means my death is a fixed event, the universe depends on it happening” Clara said over her.

“I’m sorry,” Ashildr said looking down.

“Why?” Clara shrugged. “Why does everyone think I am so scared? We all face the raven in the end. That is the deal.”

Ashildr looked at her, curious of her fighting spirit.

“If I go back to Gallifrey they can put me back, right? On Trap Street? The moment they took me out?”

“Of course.”

“Mind you,” she said nonchalantly, “seeing as I’m not actually ageing there’s still a tiny little bit of wiggle room, isn’t there?”

“Wiggle room?” Ashildr questioned.

“Wiggle room,” Clara confirmed quickly. “Yeah, you know, wiggle room.”

Ashildr watched her pace around the console towards a different set of controls.

“We could, erm, you know, stop off on the way.” There was a glint in Clara’s eye.

Ashildr recognised that look, “Where are we going?” she asked, smirking as she said it.

“Gallifrey,” Clara replied as she moved a control. “Like I said,” she paused, “Gallifrey”

Clara pulled down the vortex manipulator and the entire TARDIS juddered, like a large ship hitting a rock. Ashildr lost her balance, planted her feet and steadied herself to stay upright.  
Clara took hold of Ashildr’s right hand on the console and smiled broadly at her and then looked up at the white light of the TARDIS. “The long way round.”

Ashildr looked up in wonder at the lights and marvelled at them, they were beautiful. She smiled nervously towards Clara, her hand still holding hers. Clara looked back reassuringly as the lights and sounds became blinding and deafening. They were moving, but Ashildr did not know where.


	2. Chapter 2

The TARDIS shuddered to an abrupt stop, it fell silent and the bright white lights faded to nothing. Clara pushed up the vortex manipulator and moved to the opposite side of the console releasing Ashildr’s hand.

“Where are we?” asked Ashildr, curious to know where Clara’s first stop would be.

“Where do you think?” she asked back.

Ashildr shrugged, looking at the monitor, trying to glean any information she could. It was full of symbols, nothing recognisable.

“What’s the first place a girl needs to go when she’s got a new time machine?” she said with a wry smile. “The Doctor may be able to get away with wearing one outfit for four and a half billion years but,” she looked down at herself, still dressed in the sky blue diner uniform, “I sure as hell cannot.”

Ashildr laughed, “You are a very convincing waitress,” she said sarcastically.

“As much as I like this,” she waved her hand across herself, “I don’t think there is any universe where aprons will be ‘cool’. I cannot leave like this.”

“Where did you find that?” Ashildr asked, “The TARDIS wardrobe?”

Clara snorted a laugh walking to another set of controls, “You have got to be joking, new TARDIS, fit for a Gallifreyan, all the latest fashions in red velvet, lead, gold and whatever you call that thing.” She mimicked a large circle around her head and then said deadpan, “Liberace looks at them and winces. No, I got this from the diner kitchen – there were two, the other one was Barbie Pink, and for someone called Brandy, think that’s more your colour.”

Ashildr laughed in mock agreement. “So you’ve taken me across the whole of time and space – to go shopping?” she said, incredulous. “I quite like the whole spoon thing they have going on.”

“Trust me, no. Where I’m from they’d look at you like you had two heads.”

Ashildr looked away blushing, “I think I once dated an Aplan, let me tell you, two heads are definitely better than one.”

“A who?”

“Bit awkward in the end, at least I think it was, I can’t really remember,” she tapped the right side of her head, “finite memory.”

“You were with someone,” she said dryly, “with two heads.”

“Yes.”

Clara gave her a blank look and then turned around and walked towards the door to the diner, it opened automatically for her. Ashildr followed, “So where’s the first stop? All of time and space, where are we?”

Clara walked into the empty diner, sparing a glance towards the counter, the two empty glasses of lemonade still there, one straw discarded limply next to it. It was night outside now, there were lights twinkling in the background, the diner was illuminated only by the neon tube of the jukebox. Looking out of the glass window she said, “Home.”

Ashildr looked out of the window too. “Are we on Earth?”

“Yes.”

“I spent a lot of time here, not of course that I remember it all.”

“It should be the day after I died on the Trap Street.”

Ashildr felt a pang of guilt, “Clara...”

“Shush,” snapped back Clara. “Ready?”

Ashildr looked at her and nodded.

“Right then, let’s go...” Clara opened the door and immediately disappeared, screaming. “Argh!!”

“Clara!” shouted Ashildr, looking out of the door to see Clara hanging onto the bottom door frame with one hand, body dangling down with at least ten floors of space below her, streetlights glowing in the distance. The view was dazzling.

“Doctor!” she yelled, forgetting for a moment. “Ashildr! A little help please? This is not a picture!”

“It’s Me,” corrected Ashildr, realising, dropped to her knees and reached for Clara’s free hand, catching it and pulling it towards the door frame. Anchoring herself using her feet either side of the door, she grabbed both of Clara’s hands and heaved her up, it took a couple of goes but eventually Clara clambered back into the diner and collapsed in a heap beside her, catching her breath.

“Four and a half billion years the Doctor waited for me, he broke through a twenty foot piece of Azbantium, brought me back to life from the moment before my death causing a freeze in time and I almost kill myself on the first step outside.” Clara laughed and she got up and dusted herself off.

“Might need to turn it round” said Ashildr with a hint of irony.

“Might need to turn it round” agreed Clara strolling back inside the rear door, the TARDIS whooshed and Clara reappeared.

“New TARDIS, lot bigger than the previous one, need to remember that,” she muttered to herself.

She opened the door and tapped a foot tentatively on the floor, she hit gravel, edging herself out, first one foot then the second. Clara walked a few paces and then stopped, hands on her hips. Ashildr followed her, standing by her side.

“It is freezing!” Ashildr said, rubbing her arms.

“Is it? I suppose it will be, it is November,” she looked at Ashildr, “Can’t feel a thing, no pulse,” she looked back to the horizon.

“Where are we?”

“London.”

“It’s very pretty.” The skyscrapers were dotted with white lights, and there were red lights twinkling all around from many imposing construction cranes.

“Yeah,” Clara sighed.

“What are they building?” Ashildr asked, pointing across the way.

“Luxury apartments apparently,” said Clara with a wry smile. “Although I’m not sure they have edited the dictionary definition of the word ‘luxury’ yet to ‘smaller than a shoebox’,” she laughed lightly.

Ashildr shivered, blowing on her hands to warm them.

“Come on, let’s go.” Clara walked off, her white trainers crunching in the gravel with every step towards to fire exit door on the roof. “Normally the Doctor would park the TARDIS in my flat, but I guess we’re going to have to walk.”

“Not luxurious enough to fit an American Diner inside?” Ashildr said sarcastically, “Disappointing.”

“Unfortunately not,” she said looking into the distance.


	3. Chapter 3

Once inside the building they descended a few flights of stairs down to Clara’s flat, number 64 on the third floor, getting out her key from her right pocket. Clara opened the door, picking up a crumpled letter from the floor and looked at it. It was a white envelope with a printed logo of a red hand and the letters SLC on the top right near the stamp. Clara sighed.

“I can run, but I can never escape,” she said.

“Escape what?”

“Student Loan, I heard a rumour they wipe it when you’re 40,” she laughed, “I guess they’ll be waiting for me for a long time.”

She casually dropped it on to the table next to her, along with her key. She waved to her right, “Living room is there, make yourself at home,” she waved to the left, “kitchen, help yourself to food and drink if you want.” Clara disappeared left at the end of the hallway.

Ashildr went to the kitchen, looked around and sighed. It was small and dark, just illuminated by the hallway light. There were a couple of unwashed mugs in the sink, a few plates on the rack. It looked lived in. She felt another wave of guilt, remembering Clara lying in a heap on the floor as a result of the Quantum Shade Chronolock. She walked over to the fridge in the corner behind the door and opened it, a couple of bottles of white wine, some eggs, milk, orange juice, bottled water but otherwise empty.

Clara popped her head around the side of the kitchen door, just as Ashildr closed the fridge. She turned on the light switch, flooding the room with a clinical glow, the cupboards were a turquoise blue. “Mine’s milk and one” she said and disappeared. She came back, “actually, make it two. Today is a two sugar day.”

Ashildr looked confused, “what?”

“Seriously?” Clara said, laughing incredulously, feigning shock.

“I have no idea what you are talking about.”

“You are immortal, a true born Viking, you are a Hybrid human of the Mire who has lived for billions of years, watched the universe die in front of you,” she paused and raised her eyebrows, “and yet you don’t know what to do with a tea order. That’s ‘disappointing’” mocking Ashildr’s earlier sarcasm.

Ashildr looked back with a raised eyebrow, “Thanks.”

Clara’s look softened, she walked in, filled up the kettle with water and set it to boil. She got two clean mugs from the cupboard. She jumped up onto the counter top to sit on it. “Want one?” she said, proffering her a white mug with a faded London 2012 logo.

Ashildr nodded and took the mug, turning away, looking listlessly out of the window. “I’m sorry, I’ve been alone for a very long time.”

“It’s OK, don’t worry.” Clara wiped the edge of her pink mug on her apron, holding it up to the light.

The kettle boiled in the background for a minute as Ashildr stood looking out of the window, Clara rested her right elbow on the fridge, threading her fingers through her hair, drumming the fingers of her left hand on the counter as the kettle’s volume increased.

It clicked off, and Clara opened a canister half full of tea bags, dropping one in her mug, eyeing up throwing one towards Ashildr’s cup but deciding against it. “Here,” she said, “you’ll need this.”

Ashildr looked back at her, taking the tea. Clara topped her mug up with hot water and she dropped the bag in, watching it swirl around and muddy the water. Clara offered her a spoon.  
“Be careful, try not to wear it.”

Ashildr pulled a face, following Clara putting milk and sugar into the cup.

“Prepare yourself, once you taste this delicious builder’s tea, there is no turning back.”

Ashildr cradled the mug and took a sip, swallowed and nodded to quietly to herself.

“I can see why the Doctor waited all that time for you,” she said warmly.

“You can?” Clara replied curiously.

“You’re quite excellent at getting the drinks in,” she took another sip, “but this is quite possibly the worst beverage I have ever tasted, and that, coming from me, really is saying something.” 

“Give it time, I’ll make a true northerner out of you yet, just wait until we reach the lesson on brown sauce,” Clara said raising the pink mug which declared her the World’s Best Teacher, “I didn’t get this for nothing.”

Ashildr shuddered. “Modest. Can’t wait.”

Clara looked at the mug. “So hang on, if I’m frozen in time does that mean I need to eat or drink? I don’t need to breathe, so it figures.”

“Can you taste your delicious builder’s tea?”

“Yes, but it’s not hot, not cold, just liquid. How odd.”

“You’re not immortal though, are you? If I shot you now would you die?”

Clara eyed Ashildr suspiciously. “Are you planning to shoot me?”

“The last time you died a man tortured himself for four and a half billion years to resurrect you, figure you’re a good person to be around, and besides,” she pointed towards the ceiling, “I clearly missed the memo on ‘How to Fly your American Diner through time and space’ – I’m good, excellent in fact, but I’m not that good.”

“Good point,” Clara said, proceeding with caution. “All my fault, tick”

Ashildr looked down towards her hands, “Yes-”

There was a loud rustle from the other room which made them both turn towards the door.

“Oh, that’s probably the window,” Clara walked off towards her bedroom, “can get pretty breezy around here with all the new high rises.” Clara sipped the last dregs of her tea.  
Still holding her cup, Ashildr moved to the next room where she sat on the beige sofa leaning back looking around, trying to absorb information about her new travelling companion. “I’m going to get changed and pack,” Clara shouted down the hallway.

Ashildr turned on the tasselled lamp to her left looked around the lounge, illuminated in a warm glow. There was a large bookcase at the back of the room, and a yellow leather recliner seat in front of it. The television was on the other side of the room on a blue recycled crate. She looked at the various photos dotted around the room in white frames, intrigued by the mismatched decorating. The curtains were closed, patchwork in design. She opened them and saw a glazed door out to a small balcony, and she could see the London skyline in the distance. There was a little condensation at the bottom of the pane, she could feel the cold outside when she put her palm on the glass. She drew the curtains back and went to sit on the olive green sofa to her left.

There was a small table in front of her which she set her cup down on to. There was a used wine glass, a newspaper and a leaflet from a wildlife charity raising money to save animals which had an elephant on the front.

Ashildr picked up the newspaper, leaning back into the sofa, feeling comfortable. The paper was folded to page 8, where it showed a section called ‘Guilty Pleasures’ and there was a large picture of a man called R-Patz wearing only underwear and several other short stories that constituted gossip. Ashildr looked at the date, 19th November 2015. She set it back down and finished off the last of the drink through gritted teeth.

In the bedroom Clara closed the open window, as she did a coloured piece of paper fluttered in and gently wafted towards the carpeted floor, landing as gracefully as a feather. Clara picked it up, it was a flyer for a local takeaway. One side had their menu showing a cheery cartoon dinosaur breathing fire into the pizza oven, the other side was white with ‘Thank you’ in medium sized black capital letters. She casually threw it onto the bed side table and moved to the wardrobe getting two large suitcases out, lying them open on the bed ready. Clara sized up an outfit to change into, settling on a turquoise shirt, black biker jacket, dark blue tight jeans and black wedge trainers. She had left her ‘death outfit’ in the TARDIS, unable to look at it without thinking of the last time the Doctor remembered her.

She took her clothes in the bathroom to change, reappearing to dust herself down, fluff up her hair in the three mirrors and unceremoniously dump a large amount of toiletries into one of the suitcases. She selected a handful of outfits, underwear and accessories to take with her. She heard something rattle. It appeared to be coming from under the bed. Clara steeled herself to look, when she did, there was nothing. “I need to hoover,” she muttered to herself.

When the suitcases were full, she moved one out to the hallway, saying to Ashildr as she went past, “Almost done.”

Ashildr was lost in thought, looking through some of the books Clara had. She found an old looking copy of Sense and Sensibility, pulled it out and saw it was signed, by Jane Austen herself.

“A signed copy of Jane Austen,” Ashildr said, “Really?”

“Read the other side of the page,” Clara said with a cheeky grin.

Ashildr read the page and blushed, “I suppose a signed copy was the least she could do for that.”

Clara laughed. “Now read the back page.”

“I think I have seriously underestimated you,” she tutted and shook her head.

Clara winked back at her, “I’ll be having that back thanks.” She took the book, read the inscription and held it to her chest, walked and put it in the front pocket of the suitcase.

Ashildr looked at Clara urgently, “Are you done yet? Because we need to talk about the elephant in the room.”

Clara sighed. “Ok, cards on the table. You put one of my friends to danger to kidnap the Doctor, you’ve left me scarred for non life with a quite frankly awful tattoo, ruined one of my best outfits...” she paused for breath, “ and the whole ‘Me’ thing, don’t even get me started on that.”

“What?! No! I actually meant the elephant in the room. The one behind you.”


	4. Chapter 4

Clara turned round to see an elephant stood in the middle of her living room. It was roughly the same height as her, and it stood still facing sideways. She moved closer towards it, intrigued and a little perplexed. She came within a foot distance and then the head swung towards her. It made a rustle of paper as it did, creasing like origami.

“What...” Ashildr said as she pointed towards the elephant, “on earth is that?”

Clara looked back at her and mouthed a silent word.

Ashildr walked closer to it, taking careful steps on the carpet. She moved to walk around the other side, away from Clara when one of the elephant’s front legs staggered forward with another loud crumple. Ashildr held her hand out towards its rear, making contact and feeling the skin. It felt course underneath her hand.

“It’s paper,” she said. “How can paper be moving? This is very curious.”

“I have no idea,” Clara said moving her right hand towards one of the elephant’s ears.

The elephant turned its head suddenly, the trunk lunged for Clara’s wrist, before it made contact there was a swirl of noise and what sounded like a large piece of paper tearing. The elephant looked as if it was deflating, and then screwed up into a small ball about the size of a football on the deep pink carpet floor.

Ashildr crouched down to look at it, leaning around to see it from every angle.

Clara knelt down next to her, “What are you?” she directed at the paper ball.

Ashildr picked it up, hesitating for a moment. “Feels... tingly” she offered it to Clara.

Clara shook her head, “No, ta, you’re the immortal one.”

Ashildr screwed up her face, “It’s light, like newspaper, solid and it feels slightly electrically charged-”

The ball flew out of her hands and rolled out of the room, towards the bedroom like a piece of tumbleweed. Clara and Ashildr looked at each other, and both stood up to follow it. Clara poked her head around the door frame, subconsciously holding her arm out to keep Ashildr behind her. The hallway was clear, so she edged slowly towards the bedroom. There was a shadow cast across the bed that had not been there earlier, there was an unsettling amount of rustling coming from inside. Clara moved forward, Ashildr close behind.

A large roar came from in front of them, hidden behind the side wall. 

“We now have a choice,” whispered Clara. “We either investigate... or run”

“I say investigate,” Ashildr whispered without missing a beat.

Clara slid forward against the wall until she reached the corner. She glanced round quickly. There was nothing there, the shadow had gone. Clara turned round to Ashildr, “there’s nothing there”.

Ashildr saw a large black figure appear behind Clara, as tall as the ceiling. Clara noticed the light dim around her and slowly turned around, looking up. She stepped back, trampling on Ashildr’s feet trying to get back. There was another roar as the figure’s face was illuminated by the hallway light as it lurched over them both. It was a cartoon dinosaur, snarling, teeth grinning manically – all made out of paper. It was dripping paper saliva droplets like tickertape.

“This is not good,” said Ashildr.

“Nope.”

“What do we do?”

“How do we kill paper?”

“Got any scissors? Don’t they kill paper?”

“Scissors?! They do in an imaginary playground game,” said Clara, still walking backwards,

“You’re an English teacher! You must have some scissors. Or maybe some rocks.”

“Rocks?” Clara said incredulously, “Rocks?! Oh yes, wait here whilst I go into the kitchen to get a large rock, besides, paper kills rock”

“How about a sword?” said Ashildr shuffling away from the creature.

“Ahh yes, a sword, just pop into the armoury, first door on the right next to the downstairs loo,” Clara said sarcastically.

The dinosaur threw its head backwards, as if inhaling. With a splutter it started blowing out red and orange paper streams from its mouth, as if they were being blown by some air conditioning from behind. Clara raised her right arm to shield her face from the flames.

Ashildr looked at it, and tilted her head. “That’s not real fire, it’s just paper.”

“I don’t think so,” said Clara, cradling her arm, her jacket looked as if it had been mauled by a tiger, there were deep scratches below, bleeding slightly.

Ashildr looked at Clara’s arm, lifting up the arm of the jacket, “Ouch.”

“I can’t feel it,” Clara lied. “More pressing issues” she nodded towards the dinosaur, still creaking towards her. “Stay here, it can’t hurt you” Clara disappeared into the kitchen, and came back with a bread knife, a candle lighter and a bucket.

“Bucket? Useful,” Ashildr took the bread knife and began to swing it around, as if she was fencing. She cut several gashes in the dinosaur’s stomach, it didn’t make any difference as it still lurched forward.

Clara clicked the candle lighter, it sprouted a small flame.

“Oh great, the world’s smallest fire. And a bucket. Well done.”

Clara held the lighter towards the dinosaur’s foot, trying to make it catch alight. 

“Be careful! I’ll distract it” shouted Ashildr, as the dinosaur inhaled, ready to breathe paper fire again.

“Let’s try fighting fire...” Clara said as the dragon exhaled another plume of tickertape directly at Ashildr, “... with fire.”

The flame stuck to the dinosaur’s foot, and suddenly a black mottling began to appear of the green skin of the dinosaur, leaving behind a trail of embers in its wake. It fizzed and crackled as it travelled along the creature’s skin. The dinosaur disappeared in a puff of smoke.

“What is the bucket for?”

“If the fire didn’t work, I was going to try the whole water thing. Are you ok?” Clara asked Ashildr, turning to look at her.

Ashildr’s face was covered in deep red cuts, the neckline of her t-shirt in tatters, Clara walked to her, instinctively putting a hand up to Ashildr’s face. As she did, she saw the redness fade, slowly healing magically in front of her eyes.

“Immortality, that is cool,” Clara said, impressed, looking at her arm, still scratched. 

Ashildr shook her head, “No, it’s really not.”

“We need to get out of here, right now.”

Clara went into her bedroom, picked up her other suitcase and rolled it out to the hall. She saw Ashildr zipping up one of the suitcases as she reached her. She picked up her keys from the table and opened the door, both of them taking a suitcase each into the communal corridor. She went to turn the lock when a large hand red hand came out of the letter box from the inside, grabbing at her waist. Clara jumped backwards, falling over. The hand continued snatching at the air towards them.

“Time to go!” Clara said breezily., putting her keys in her front left pocket.


	5. Chapter 5

They made their way up eight flights of stairs back on to the roof, the gravel hindering their progress.

“What the hell have you got in here?” shouted Ashildr, throwing it down onto the floor. The dawn was beginning to break, leaving a mottled red, orange and grey staining on the horizon, the cranes sprawled across the skyline, interrupted by the skyscrapers.

“I packed my rocks, especially for the next time we face a boss.”

“Not funny.”

They reached the diner and pushed the suitcases inside. The lights were still off. Clara looked around for a light switch, finding it outside the kitchen. They switched on one by one with a dull ping.

“I certainly hope all this,” Ashildr pointed around her, “was worth it.”

“If it means I don’t have to wear a spoon on the back of my head for the rest of my life it’s totally worth it.”

“Let’s look at your arm,” Ashildr said, going towards the diner kitchen, “there must be some sort of repair kit in here.” She emerged carrying a green box with a white cross on it, “Will this work?”

“Yep, bring it here.” Clara removed her jacket, sighing at the damage, “I loved this jacket, it was one of my favourites.” She sat in one of the booths by the wall, Ashildr sat opposite her and opened the first aid kit onto the table. “So I guess this means I’m not immortal then?”

“I guess not,” Ashildr said ripping open an antiseptic wipe, pushing up Clara’s right shirt sleeve to her elbow. There were five or six deep cuts which had developed bruising around them. “This may or may not hurt. Not quite sure how this whole damage to someone frozen between heartbeats thing works.”

Clara winced as Ashildr cleaned her arm, biting down on the knuckle of her left forefinger to distract her from the pain. “God that hurts.”

“You are going to have to be careful,” said Ashildr, preparing a bandage to wrap around her arm. “I’m going to have to look after you.”

“Please don’t feel sorry for me, you out of all people.”

Ashildr finished with the bandage, tying it hard enough the make Clara inhale sharply. “Ok, cards on the table. I didn’t put your friend in danger, you did, I didn’t kidnap the Doctor, that was Gallifrey, and the tattoo could be worse... I’ve seen ‘Tattoo Fixers’, besides, when you wear your hair down you can’t see it, and,” she made quotation marks with her fingers, “the whole ‘Me thing’” - Me is my name, I don’t call you...” she paused, trying to think of a fitting name, “Barry... do I?”

“But doesn’t it get confusing? Ashildr is your name, when I first met you that was your name. You were a Viking child, I remember the Doctor saving you, and doesn’t everyone think you’re talking about yourself in like the third person or something?”

“Nobody calls me that except for you and him. My family died billions of years ago, I’ve outlived every single one of my children, watching them die whilst I’m stuck as some teenage girl, I’ve spent so much time alone, just waiting, waiting for something to happen,” she said, holding back tears. “I didn’t ask for this, I never asked anyone to save me, and I’m never going to die, I’ve lived the whole lifetime of the universe already and somehow I’ve ended up here, with you. So excuse me for wanting to have you call me by my own name.”

Clara offered Ashildr a napkin from the silver holder on the table to dry her eyes.

“I suppose that’s reasonable,” Clara said.

“Thank you.”

“I guess we are stuck together now, Me.”

“I guess we are.”

“If we are going to travel together we need to trust each other, looks like I’m going to need you, probably as the person who gets injured, seeing as I can’t get hurt.”

“Thanks Barry.”

They both laughed at the name.

Clara looked wistfully over towards to counter, towards the chair where the Doctor sat. The two lemonade glasses were still there. She saw the Sonic Sunglasses lying still on the counter. She now noticed the Doctor’s bag on one of the red stools. “That’s his, he must have left it here,” she said with an air of intrigue.

“What? That bag?”

“Yeah, I wonder what’s inside? Pass it over,” she held up her right arm, “bit injured.”

Ashildr reached for the bag without leaving her seat and dumped it onto the table. “Feels heavy”

Tipping it upside down onto the table, a few affects dropped out. There was a leather wallet that was blank inside. “The Doctor’s Psychic Paper!” Clara exclaimed. “He will not be happy when he finds out this is gone.”

There were a few guitar plectrums, a packet of jelly babies in a paper bag, a scarf, some jammie dodgers, bronze binoculars, two pairs of underpants with question marks on them and a dog eared copy of the Lonely Planet Guide to the Universe for the year 4021. Clara winced and brushed the underwear on to the floor. She looked through to book, it fell open on a page showing a shopping planet.

Ashildr picked up the jelly babies. “What are these? Weapons?”

“No, they’re sweets, nice ones,” Clara said as she reached over Ashildr into the paper bag, fished out two red ones and placed them in her mouth. “Delicious,” she said, “you know,” she said pointing at the Jammie Dodgers, “he left a plate of these out for me the first day I met him.”

Ashildr toyed with one of the jelly babies, tearing the head off a green one and then eating it. “Agreed, very nice” she said, finishing the body off. She looked at the biscuits, reflecting on their shape. “They look like big red buttons.”

“So where should we go next? I’m sorted for my things, just need to put a few of them around the TARDIS, that white room isn’t very homely. Do you want to go home?”

“God no. I want to go on an adventure.”

“Well,” Clara said shuffling across to get up from her seat. “I’d better unpack”

“Does the TARDIS have rooms? Do we get rooms? It must have a bathroom, right?”

“I have no idea, maybe we should explore?”

Ashildr got up and went to follow Clara when she heard a tap on the glass door at the front.

There was a man outside, banging on the window with his fist, face illuminated by the lights. Clara heard the noise too, and looked back round to see what it was.

Ashildr walked up to the door, opening it inwards to speak to the stranger. Clara made motions to follow.

“Can I help you?”

“Are you open?” said the man. He was wearing cropped trousers, brogues, an oversized coat and a greasy man bun alongside a large well kept beard.

“Erm, no we’re not, closed for the night.”

“Oh,” he said looking deflated, “this place is all over Twitter and Facebook, the American Diner with a view over London, on the top of a block of flats, number one thing to do this week. Apparently the breakfast burrito is to die for.”

“We’ve been here less than two hours!” said Ashildr.

“They’re closed!” the man bellowed to his left.

“Word travels fast,” said Clara, behind Ashildr. “Where did you hear about us?”

“From the Time Out twitter feed, a man working on one of the buildings nearby spotted it, took a picture and tweeted it. They say you’ve been planning this for months, the new marketing of just appearing and letting word spread by word of mouth. Really difficult to get up here by the way, no lift, bit of a walk, and I had to follow in a resident just to get into the building, nice touch. Very exclusive.”

A crowd of people appeared from the right.

“Dear god,” Clara muttered under her breath, looking to the floor.

“Thanks for your interest,” Ashildr looked around, “everyone, but we’re not open.”

She shut the door. The people outside looked disappointed and began to slink off one by one.

“Damn hipsters! They’ll turn up at a letter opening these days. We need to get a ‘We’re Closed’ sign,” said Clara.

“Agreed” said Ashildr, walking back towards the rear TARDIS door.

“Wait a minute,” said Clara, noticing something out of the corner of her eye. She opened the door and ran after one of the stragglers, tapping her on the shoulder. “What’s that?” she asked, pointing at the flyer she was holding.

An impossibly tall and thin girl, no older than sixteen, turned around to face Clara.

“Discount voucher. Some woman was giving them out at the station, I must say, I’m very disappointed, I shall be writing a strongly worded Trip Advisor review.” She looked Clara straight in the eye, “One star,” she said slowly. “Maybe I also got food poisoning.”

“Yeah, whatever. Can I have that?”

The girl screwed it up and threw it at Clara’s face, “thanks for nothing”. It hit her shoulder and dropped limply on the floor. She looked Clara up and down, gave her a dirty look, then turned away, running slightly to catch up with the others.

Clara picked up the screwed up voucher and walked back to the diner, closing the door behind her, locking it from the inside.

“What was that all about?” asked Ashildr.

“Kids.”

“Kids?”

“Kids... with discount vouchers.”

“Discount vouchers? What, for here?”

“Apparently so,” Clara said, unfurling the paper on the closest table.

They both looked down towards the page. The voucher had a black background, offering a 50% discount for the ‘Drinks and Gas Diner’ – there were two pairs of scissors cutting money in half on either side. On the other side it was blank and there were large capital letters saying ‘THANK YOU’.

“I saw this earlier in my flat,” said Clara. “It was a flyer for a pizza takeaway with a picture of a dinosaur that looked suspiciously like the thing that did this,” she pointed to her arm.

“So what, all the paper is coming alive now?” asked Ashildr.

“I don’t know, having this in here feels like a bad idea though,” Clara said, screwing back up the voucher, opening the front door to the diner and throwing it outside, over the threshold. 

The ball of paper travelled through the air and refolded itself into two large pairs of scissors which flew back towards the open door of the TARDIS as if they were boomerangs.


	6. Chapter 6

Ashildr and Clara both rushed to the door, trying to force it closed. One pair of scissors got past into the diner, snapping violently above their heads. The second pair was wedged in the crack of the door. They were pushing back as the trapped pair of scissors fought against them, clipping and snipping through the gap. They eventually managed to push it back outside, not before a small white paper aeroplane floated through the gap landing on the chequered floor about six feet behind them.

The scissors inside snatched angrily above their heads, four feet across and silver in colour. They hung in the air for a second, still for a moment, and then they moved to face Ashildr and Clara at eye level, their backs both against the front door.

Ashildr stood in front of Clara, protecting her, the scissors snipped away towards her head and arms. She was cut ten or fifteen times on her face before the scissors again paused for a second. This time the scissors went for her legs and ankles, throwing her off balance onto the floor. Clara backed away and the scissors turned to face her, forcing her backwards towards the rear of the diner. The scissors were open, but not snapping any more. Clara’s back hit the wall and the scissors continued forward menacingly before stopping still about two feet away from her face.

Clara winced, expecting pain, before cautiously opening her left eye to look. There was a loud swoosh, and the scissors went around her at the waist, pinning her body to the TARDIS console door. She tried to move slightly but was completely immobile, the blades sharp against her arms.

Ashildr had got back to her feet, at first moving to help Clara but presently distracted by the paper aeroplane, which had now stood onto its back wings, unfolding and doubling in size each time, filling the height of a diner with a box-like white two legged figure, at least six feet high which was shambling trying to find its balance. It looked like it was made from papier-mâché, the light travelling through it made it seem mottled yet almost translucent.

It staggered towards the back of the room, Ashildr standing between it and Clara. Ashildr picked up one of the red leather bar stools and began to thrash it towards the figure as it crept closer. It seemed to grow with every step, until it loomed over her, as wide as it was tall. She continued pushing the bar stool, unsure now whether to aim it towards the middle or the head of the beast. The creature managed to grab hold of the stool with one of its hands and it swept it aside with Ashildr still attached, throwing her twelve feet backwards towards the front doors. She landed with a dull thud bending her right leg back completely, dislocating a shoulder, skidding the rest of the way back to the other end of the room.

The creature had grown outwards and now almost completely enveloped itself around Clara and the scissors.

“Ashildr!” cried out Clara, “Help me!”

“I’m trying to!” said Ashildr, sitting up, moving her legs around in front of her, wincing slightly as her right leg straightened with a large crack. She stood up using her non-dislocated arm and pushed her shoulder back into its socket. She looked around for something to use, running into the kitchen she saw a fire extinguisher on the wall. She pulled it off, taking a chunk out of the plaster as she did.

“Help me!” Clara shouted again. The paper was becoming smaller now, folding back in on itself around the door Clara was pinned to, her shout was muffled.

Ashildr looked for the pin on the fire extinguisher, pulling it out, letting it drop to the floor with a metallic clink. She squeezed the handle and a large jet of white foam came out, covering the creature completely in a cloud of spray, continuing until the cylinder was empty.

“Ashildr!!” was a faint cry in front.

“Hold on Clara!” said Ashildr. The creature was beginning to dissolve under the weight of the foam, fizzling away to nothing. Ashildr jumped forward to dig Clara out from the foam, wading through towards the back of the diner. She reached to pull her out, her hand meeting the door at the back, lunging aimlessly trying to grab hold of her. The creature had almost dissipated, dropping to her knees Ashildr searched desperately for Clara on the floor. All of the foam had dissolved now, leaving just a wet floor in its wake, Clara nowhere to be seen.


	7. Chapter 7

Ashildr sat on the floor where Clara had stood contemplating what to do. She was unusually emotional, trying to find a rational explanation for why she had disappeared.

She stood up, thinking what to do next. The floor was slick and slippery from the fire extinguisher, as she almost lost her balance several times.

Ashildr walked to the front door of the diner, going out on to the roof to look out at the city. Dawn was breaking, the orange sky from earlier had turned into a red and light blue wash. There were still some white lights from the nearby buildings, although most had turned off. There was a hum of traffic and the occasional siren drifting through the air. It was a beautiful sunrise. She stared and looked at it for a while, watching the shadows move around the buildings. 

Out of the corner of her eye she noticed a flicker of a light in a nearby building, different to the others. It was a green spotlight, a speck of neon green in a sea of white, red, grey and blue. She looked closer. It was coming from a nearby building about ten floors higher, even with squinting she couldn’t get a better look.

She went inside, looking for the binoculars they’d found in the Doctor’s bag. They were under the table, thrown off in the earlier chaos. She picked them up and then walked back outside, trying to find where she had seen the light. The green light flashed again, more steady this time, as if directed at her. Using the binoculars, she found the source by counting the windows as if they were a grid - it was bright spotlight, adjusting the viewfinder to bring it into focus. There was someone holding the spotlight, they shifted from behind and walked towards the front of the window. It was Clara wearing a hard hat and a builder’s vest, smiling, waving, and holding up a sign that just said ‘COME GET, ME’. She readjusted the focus, looking again just to be sure she’d seen it correctly. It was definitely her.

The block style building was still being constructed, rising up maybe thirty floors, the top was covered in blue netting that said UT and had the tallest crane she could see inside its centre.

Ashildr put the binoculars back into the diner on the nearest table, taking Clara’s discarded jacket to keep warm, it was a size too big for her, and the right arm flapped slightly where it had been ripped. She put the Doctor’s psychic paper into her right back pocket, hooking the sonic sunglasses onto a belt loop and then left, turning off the lights shutting the door behind her. It was almost fully light now, a clear, crisp morning, and as she ran to the door off the roof she spattered gravel around her. 

She went down the ten flights of stairs to the ground floor, emerging from the building surrounded by a small patch of dew covered grass, a large expanse of concrete and a pile of discarded discount vouchers around the rubbish bin. 

She looked up to orientate herself towards the building. From the ground the building seemed to rise up into the clouds, she couldn’t see the very top. She estimated it was about twenty minute’s walk away, and turning up the collar on Clara’s jacket, she wrapped it tightly around her and set off.

She walked towards a nearby train station, fighting her way past the early rush hour crowds. She passed a man giving out newspapers, and he forced one into her hand before she could refuse. The front page showed the story of a family of five who had disappeared in the night without a trace, the picture was of a large brick built detached house with forensics officers around it. After glancing at this she folded it in half and placed it on top of a pile of new newspapers further down the road. The people were beginning to thin out now, Ashildr was walking down a slope towards the base of the building in the direction of Waterloo station. She took a left down a cobbled alley with a steep gradient, with the intention of having a look around before going in.

When she reached the bottom she saw the entrance to the building site, the block looming high above the street. She did a lap around the hoarding looking for anything unusual. The building was called the UT Tower, designated to be sixty floors high including apartments, penthouse suites, a hotel, several restaurants and commercial space due for completion in May 2017. It was being built by the OSG group. Its logo, a strong leafless white tree surrounded by a white circle was on each piece of dark grey hoarding as she walked round. There were three doors, a vehicle entrance, a small doorway for constructors and a grandiose reception leading to a show apartment and management offices. It was almost exclusively fitted out in black marble, granite, chrome and thick panels of glass with a grey tint. The bottom twenty floors of the building were externally complete, with blue sheeting covering the building after that.  
Ashildr decided she would try the main entrance first, thinking if she posed as someone looking at a show apartment she would be able to slip into the building unnoticed.

She walked confidently into the reception area, there were three large steel clock hands screwed directly into the marble wall. The time was 8.45am. According to the opening times the office had been open for barely fifteen minutes. Ashildr moved towards the monolithic granite reception desk, towards a well appointed man in his early twenties, dressed in a sharp well fitting suit and with immaculate short hair. His black name badge said ‘Andrew’, and gave his job title as ‘Building Administration’.

The man caught her looking at his badge and looked at her with a painfully cheery grin, much more than she was expecting at this time in the morning. It was clear he was making an assessment of her as well.

“Good morning,” he said, casting his eyes towards Ashildr, noticing her torn neckline and ripped right sleeve, he paused before saying, “can I help you?”

She was a little less confident than she was walking in, suddenly feeling conspicuous in her ripped clothes, remembering that, although she was billions of years old, she looked teenage to anyone else. She wondered if he thought she was too young to be buying an apartment.

“I’m interested in looking at the show apartment, please,” she said, as confidently as she could muster.

He gave her an awkward glance, “is it just you, or,” he said, looking around, “are your parents here as well?” She looked as if she had been mauled overnight by an animal, not the usual type of customer he dealt with.

“No,” she said, knowing his impression of her now, “it’s just me.” She had to think quickly on her feet. “I’m in my third year of Art School at Oxford, Mummy and Daddy told me I can live wherever I want if I graduate with at least a pass. And I like this place,” she stroked the granite counter top, “it’s beautiful.” She hoped this would appeal to him. “They’ve given me a million,” she paused, forgetting the currency London used in 2015, “to buy with, and I want to buy here.”

He smiled at her, realising now that as an art student he may have simply misjudged her clothing, but laughing inwardly that she thought a million pounds would be enough to buy anything in the UT Tower. “Of course,” he said, the last syllable almost snakelike. “May I take your name and I can put you on the waiting list for an appointment viewing?”

“I’m very short of time, Mummy only brought me down for the day, I’d like to see it now.”

“I’m afraid that will not be possible, we are fully booked.”

She looked again at his name badge. “Andrew, I understand you may have a full diary, but my parents are,” she looked him directly in the eye, “very influential people. I can’t think of going back to them saying that I had to go to my second choice apartment because the diary was full. Wouldn’t want you to end up, unemployed, either would we?”

He shifted his weight uncomfortably. “Can-can I take your name?” he stuttered out.

“Me-,” she stopped herself remembering what Clara had said about her name, “Me-thusula Rothschild, daughter of the Earl of Oxford.”

“Miss Rothschild, if I could invite you to take a seat, I will see if a member of our team will be able to assist you.”

“Thank you Andrew,” she allowed herself a half smile, “that would be excellent.”

Ashildr turned on her heel and walked towards the clinical black leather armchairs on the opposite side of the reception area. She sat in a chair that faced Andrew so she could monitor his actions. It was uncomfortable to do anything more than perch on the seat, it was quite intimidating. She took off her jacket and rested it on her knees. She saw Andrew pick up a telephone and talk quietly into it, glancing at her intermittently as he did.

Andrew picked several pieces of lint off his sleeve before placing the receiver down. He made movements on a nearby computer screen. He smoothed down his jacket and walked from behind the desk towards Ashildr. She didn’t get up.

“Methusula,” he said in an obviously put on warm voice. “It appears we have an opening for a viewing now, can you wait?”

Ashildr acknowledged him with a nod and said nonchalantly, “Thank you.”

“One of our Marketing Executives, Emily, will be with you shortly, please stay here. Can I offer you a cup of tea, coffee or water?”

Ashildr asked for a coffee hoping this would be drinkable, having already tried Clara’s tea earlier. Andrew nodded and then disappeared to the room behind the reception desk. He reappeared with a dainty black cup and saucer emblazoned with the OSG logo. She brought it to her lips, unable to drink it as it was too hot, inhaling the heavy aroma. Too hot to drink she placed it on the clear glass table in front of her as she watched the clock hands move around the wall. She continued sipping the coffee as ten minutes passed by, liking it much better than tea. When she took the last sip she heard a clockwork-like clicking sound coming from down the hallway. A woman breezed through the security gates towards her. She was early thirties, tall, thin and had perfectly tousled blonde hair. She wore a tight navy knee length skirt and a white flowing blouse, sheer to the point of almost being able to see her bra underneath. She also wore impossibly high heels, the source of the rhythmic clicking.

The woman held out one of her hands, the other carrying a leather-bound computer tablet.

“Miss Rothschild?” she extended her hand.

Ashildr shook her hand lightly as she stood up from the chair, leaving her coffee cup on the table, knowing Andrew would have to clear it up.

“My name is Emily, nice to meet you, would you come with me?” she smiled a set of perfect white teeth.

Ashildr began to follow her towards the security gates, the shoes making the noise again. Emily left a trail of expensive perfume in her wake. She noticed the red soles of the shoes she was wearing flashing with every step, contrasting sharply against the grey and black surroundings. Ashildr blanked Andrew as she walked past, she now felt considerably more underdressed in her ripped dark purple neckline t-shirt, tight dark blue jeans, knee length leather boots and carrying her damaged jacket. There was no turning back now.


	8. Chapter 8

Emily walked to the security gates, waved her identification pass on the reader and the glass panels opened. Ashildr followed her past a set of three lifts on the right to a grand black marble staircase at the end of the hallway. It extended upwards at least sixty stairs in one flight to the first floor.

“The lifts aren’t finished yet, so we will need to take the stairs, if you don’t mind,” said Emily.

“Of course,” said Ashildr, looking around, staggered by the opulence around her.

Light streamed in over the staircase allowing any reflective particles to shine in the marble and granite surface. It reminded Ashildr of an intergalactic casino she had once been to rather than a block of apartments.

“Wow, this is beautiful,” Ashildr said, louder than she had intended.

Emily began climbing the stairs ahead of her but slowed down to draw level and walk by her side. She beamed another perfect smile. “This is the UT Tower, London’s premiere apartment block. The staircase we’re walking on is made of exclusive black marble, hand cut from a single stone discovered in North America, we had it shipped over at an expense you could not believe.” 

Ashildr was sure she could believe it - the floor sparkled like diamonds as the light hit it.

They reached the top, Ashildr got the feeling there probably was a service lift as Emily looked in a lot of discomfort climbing the stairs wearing pinpoint heels, like it was just a show for the clients.

On the first floor the bank of three lift doors were now to their left, there was a large door to the right that said ‘Corporate Offices’ and a double door at the end that said ‘Marketing Suite’.

They continued straight on, the double doors opened automatically as they approached them. In complete contrast to the building she had seen so far, this room was almost exclusively white with a crystalline shimmer to it. The entire far wall was made of glass, casting long shadows across the double height room in the early morning sunshine. The windows had a grey misting, allowing it to be light but at the same time not glaringly bright. There were several rooms set out across two tiers, all of the walls half height. The whole room could have easily been originally designed to park an airplane.

Emily walked to the right and sat on a white leather swivel chair behind a large white skeletal desk, from where she gestured for Ashildr to sit opposite her. Ashildr sat on the white armchair opposite, curious to know how this would play out. She had bought property before, but never under circumstances like this.

“So then,” Emily said smiling, “what can I do for you?”

“I’m interested in buying one of the apartments,” she said, treading carefully with her words, “I’ve been promised a flat in London by Daddy if I pass my exams, and I want the best.”

“What is your budget?” she smiled, trying to work Ashildr out.

“They said I could have a million,” she said dismissively, “but I know Daddy will give me more if I ask him.”

She looked impressed at her blasé manner, “Right then, well we should have something for you. The two bedroom apartment facing towards to river is one point five million pounds, the three bedroom facing the city is just under two mil,” she said like they were items on a shopping list. Ashildr made a mental note that pounds were the currency.

“And the penthouse?” said Ashildr, chancing her luck just for the hell of it.

“Twenty-five million,” she said with no hesitation.

Ashildr blew out a whistle, impressed but inwardly horrified at the price. 

Emily smiled, knowing this was clearly more than most people would ever be able to afford in one hundred lifetimes.

“I don’t really like heights, looking for something about twenty floors up. What will be built there?”

Emily thought for a second and then tapped on the table in front of her, the top became a computer screen and she swiped until she came to the information she needed.

Ashildr cast her best impressed look towards the primitive technology.

“Amazing, isn’t it? The UT Tower is a completely paperless building, 100% carbon neutral,” Emily replied.

“Very impressive,” Ashildr said.

“So, let’s see... Floor 20... between Floor 16 and 31 we have two bedroom apartments with either a river or,” she coughed slightly, “glamorous city view.”

Ashildr thought for a moment trying to work out the direction of Clara’s block from where she currently was. “Which way are we facing now?”

“This window faces out towards the river,” Emily replied, curious as to whether the young girl would have the sense to choose the better option.

“May I?” asked Ashildr pointing towards the window.

“Of course.”

Ashildr got up and walked towards the window trying to retrace her steps from Clara’s flat. She noticed two toilets hidden behind a partition wall to her right out of the corner of her eye. She decided it had to be the other way. She now needed to find a reason to reject the river view. She had a quick scouting look outside, and then walked back to the bench.

“I think I’d prefer sunlight in the evening rather than the morning,” said Ashildr.

Clearly surprised, Emily said, “Of course, let me show you the two then.”

They walked to the two bedroom mock up apartment.

“Please remember this will be in mirror image for the rear of the building,” Emily advised.

“Right,” said Ashildr, trying to memorise the flow of the rooms, not interested in the tasteful interior design flourishes, high end appliances and specifications she was being shown. It was impressive, but much smaller than she had expected. It was still bigger than Clara’s flat, but only just.

When she had finished the tour, Emily walked back to her desk and purposely let Ashildr mull it over in her head.

“Can I see a floor plan?” Ashildr asked, trying to glean as much information as she could before the awkward part of payment was mentioned.

“Yes, of course.” She tapped the table top several times and then rotated it for Ashildr to see.

Ashildr stood up to look at the plan, committing it to her memory, six apartments each side, central corridor running either side and around the lift and stairway shafts.

“Would you like to put down a deposit?” Emily asked after a long pause. “We are ninety percent sold, I am certain these will go within the next few days.”

Ashildr could tell this was a lie. “I’ll need to consult with Mummy and Daddy first, as they are giving me the money.”

“I can let you phone them, we can wirelessly transfer the money today,” Emily replied, a look of excitement was creeping on to her face as she said this, thinking about how she could spend the five percent commission, seventy-five thousand pounds, she’d be due if the young girl bought today.

“I’m going to need to think about it,” she said.

“I’ll tell you what,” Emily said, “I can give you a one percent discount if you buy today, and offer a secure underground parking space for one year for free.”

Ashildr knew a hook when she heard one. “Wow, that’s generous. I need some time-”

Behind her the double doors opened with a loud swoosh. A large group of Chinese men entered the showroom accompanied by another female agent. She was wearing the same clothes as Emily, but was brunette and marginally prettier.

Emily looked behind Ashildr towards the group.

“-to discuss with Daddy, can I get back to you?”

“Yes, of course,” Emily was clearly mentally adding up how much commission she could earn from the new group, and was now distracted. “Would you excuse me for one moment?”

She got up from her seat and walked towards the brunette, taking her aside and whispering in her ear as the Chinese business men began to disperse to look around the various show apartments. Ashildr knew the look Emily was wearing, a determination that she was going to be involved with that group now.

Emily returned, clacking across the floor, smiling to herself.

“Sorry about that, where were we?”

“I am interested, but need time to think, can I take a few hours and then contact you?”

“Naturally, take a business card.”

Emily offered Ashildr a rectangular piece of almost translucent plastic, grey on one side with the OSG logo, the other side it was white and had ‘Emily Taylor – Marketing Executive’ and a contact number. She put it into the front right pocket of Clara’s jacket.

“Do you have a bathroom?” Ashildr asked.

“Yes, of course, towards the window, take a right.” 

“I’ll see myself out, thank you for your time,” she said, seeing Emily was itching to get involved with the other group.

“I’ll look forward to hearing from you later,” she said, with a wide, distracted smile.

Ashildr walked towards the toilets, noticing Emily was already engaging one of the businessmen, knowing she had to take this chance to explore now.

Ashildr went into the toilets, deciding to take this chance to go before having a nose around. She then put the jacket on, as she was beginning to get a chill in the large room. There were no windows or air conditioning ducts in the toilet, no other way out.

She poked her head around the outside door, looking to see where the group were. They were currently walking around the penthouse on the second tier, well out of sight. She saw Emily and the brunette looking at each other expectantly as three of the business men were taking in the view out of the large window.

To her left now were the mens toilets, and to the right was the corner of the room was a concealed fire exit. She noticed there was a stubbed out cigarette butt on the floor about three inches from the base of the door. She looked at the door, wondering if it was alarmed. There was a small black panel about the height of her waist next to the door which had a key inserted, a small green light next to it. Out of curiosity she turned the key to the right ninety degrees and the light turned red. She turned it back to green and went up to the door, pausing before pressing the bar to open it. As an afterthought she decided to take the key with her, pulling it out of the box and putting it in her front right pocket, in case she met another fire exit on her travels. 

The door opened with a small metallic click. It swung outwards onto a balcony, half solid concrete floor and half metal fire exit staircase which showed the ground beneath it. The floor was peppered with discarded cigarette ends, overflowing from a small wall-mounted ashtray. Ashildr quickly closed the door behind her, noticing there was no handle to go back the other way. There was a small grey brick next to the door, within kicking distance to prop it open.

“Definitely no turning back now,” she said to herself.


	9. Chapter 9

At the other end of the balcony there was a door that also had no handle and a brick outside it, remembering her route of where she came in, this was most likely the Corporate Office. Ashildr stood on the concrete and saw the metal staircase snaking down to the ground floor, ending up in the vehicle entrance area she had seen earlier. She saw half a dozen builders hooking the crane to one of the pallets on the back of a large truck, the cable suspended about forty feet away from her. She looked for Clara’s block, unable to see it from this vantage point. The wind picked up without the door as a shield and blew her hair in all directions, it was a cold and aggressive breeze, chilling her beneath the jacket. She took a bracelet from her wrist and facing into the wind tied her long hair back tightly.

She stepped tentatively onto the metal stairs, when looking directly down it looked like she was standing on thin air, looking from the side it looked perfectly stable and robust. Ashildr shuddered when she looked down, resetting her eyes to the horizon. She was only three floors off the ground but it still was unsettling, she hadn’t lied earlier about being afraid of heights. She remembered at that moment she once had fallen two hundred floors from a building after being thrown out of a window during an argument many years ago, she had been dubious at height ever since.

She stepped onto the staircase and went up to the next floor, marvelling at how the view had changed after just one floor. There were no doors on this level so she continued up. There was a plastic sign indicating this was Floor 5. There was one door to the right, again with no way of getting in. Being careful not to look down she continued up, looking for a way into the building and a way out of the cold, it was getting progressively colder the further up she climbed.

On Floor 8 she heard some music drifting idly through the air, both doors were shut on this floor too. She looked up through the staircase to the next floor and saw a builder sitting on his toolbox playing music on loudspeaker. She ducked into the concrete part of the balcony to hide out of his view, where she sat on the floor at the end to shield herself from the wind slightly. He was eating a sandwich, looking out at the view. She saw his footprints as shadows against the floor.

Another song came on which he began to hum along to. Ashildr didn’t recognise it but was able to hum the chorus by the time it had finished. She decided to be patient and wait it out as it was one of her strengths. 

The crane wire supported the pallet that had previously been on the truck, it slowly rose up past her. Ashildr followed it with her eyes until it left her view. 

Two more songs played, the builder finished his food and then made a loud chesty cough. He sniffed to the back of his throat and then spat a large lump of saliva to his left, dropping through the floor and landing on the concrete an inch from Ashildr’s left boot. She recoiled her foot, fighting an overwhelming sense of nausea looking at the foamy puddle in front of her.

He stood up, yawned and stretched and went back inside, taking the music with him, it faded into the background as he moved away. Ashildr decided to wait a few minutes longer to see if he came back. She stood up ready to move when she heard the music drifting back. She waited at the end of the balcony still as he picked up his toolbox and went back inside, music fading again.

She made her move this time, climbing up to the ninth floor. The door to the left was still open, supported by a brick. There was a cellophane sandwich wrapper lying limply on the floor, being moved by the breeze until it eventually fell off the edge, down to the ground.

Ashildr walked cautiously up to the door, it was dark inside, illuminated by some sort of electric light that flickered occasionally. She craned her head round the door, seeing it empty she entered, feeling immediately warmer as she did. Inside it had dusty white walls and a concrete floor. There was a discarded white hard hat upended on the left hand side of the door, she took it, carrying it in her left hand and she edged further into the building. She saw the source of the light as a portable spotlight, not unlike the one she had seen shining green at her earlier. 

After the spotlight the room shrunk into a narrow corridor which went towards the central crane. At the end there was a door that was propped open, on the top corner hung a fluorescent orange padded jacket. She took it and put it on, trying to ignore the musty, sweaty smell emitting from the collar. She put on the hard hat and immediately felt less conspicuous.

With a new confidence she went through the corridor, navigating herself based on the lifts. She found an indoor staircase behind the lift shaft through a door that was heavy to open. She looked up the middle of the staircase and saw daylight at the top. It was whitewashed and lit by strip lights on each wall.

Earlier she had estimated she’d seen the light about ten floors higher than the Clara’s building, she was currently on Floor 9, making her about halfway. She steeled herself for the climb, legs already aching.

On Floor 12, two men came in the door loudly talking in an eastern European accent, walking down the stairs. They nodded at Ashildr as she walked past, completely oblivious to her. She nodded back and continued walking upwards. 

When she reached Floor 16 she sat on the top step, trying to catch her breath, sweating from every pore. She noticed the walls were becoming less decorated, reflecting a concrete finish now. She shifted to look upwards, the daylight was getting nearer. She took off her padded jacket and removed Clara’s coat to cool down. The Doctor’s psychic paper was uncomfortable in her back pocket, digging in as she sat down. She took it out and moved it between her hands. It looked like a small leather wallet, she opened it to see a blank piece of paper on one side. 

Ashildr placed one hand on the floor, brushing Clara’s jacket as she did. She was about to put it back in her pocket when she saw a black shape flick across the white paper. She opened it up and saw diagonal black stripes running across, until the paper was candy striped. The lines began to shift, turning in to numbers, more specifically one number over and over again. ‘22’ read the writing. ‘22’ written all over the page until it was completely covered in black ink. Then a three dimensional ‘22’ hovered above the psychic paper, rotated several times and then melted back down. The paper faded to white afterwards. She closed it and put it into her back pocket. Standing up, putting both jackets on again she pressed on, determined.

On Floor 19 the staircase stopped, she was able to go no further. Still catching her breath, she opened the door to go into the building again. The surroundings were very different to Floor 9, there were no internal walls, just external and supporting pillars around. There were two strong spotlights at either side of the floor. There were wires sprouting like weeds through the floor and hanging limply from the ceiling. A man created an orange plume of sparks whilst using a circular saw.

Ashildr saw a group of five builders fitting window frames in the corner. She walked towards them, but heading towards a free window on the right. She looked out, trying to orientate herself.

She quickly spotted the diner perched on a nearby rooftop, there was a crowd of people outside the door again, probably trying to get the non-existent breakfast burrito. Looking for a way to the next floor she spotted a vertical ladder to her right. 

Ashildr put one foot and one hand on the ladder when an alarm started.


	10. Chapter 10

The alarm was a loud shrill noise that pierced her ear drums. She put her hands over her ears. She saw movement of people upstairs and decided to slink away, hiding behind the lift shaft. She took off the orange jacket and the hard hat, and seeing an empty air conditioning shaft hole decided to run to that. She went in backwards, sliding her feet in first and covered the opening with a nearby plastic sheet. There were some advantages to having such a young, small body.

The shrill alarm had stopped, replaced with an incessant beeping. There was an announcement over the speakers.

“This is OSG – we have an intruder, all personnel report to lower level checkpoints,” boomed an authoritative male voice. It repeated on a loop along with the beeping.

Ashildr remained perfectly still, inching backwards into the ducting so she was not visible from the outside. She could see a small slither of the building mottled through the plastic sheeting. She planted herself and settled in for a long wait.

The alarm was still going off. Ashildr saw some dark figures cross between the light and where she was. There were several pairs of heavy footsteps, which gradually stopped.

“We’ve found the discarded jacket and hard hat, she must be close,” said a slightly familiar female voice. There was a loud sniff. “Send out a search team, check everywhere, we can’t have her getting to twenty five.”

“Yes, ma’am,” a group of male sounding voices replied, the footsteps walking off.

“And soldiers,” the footsteps stopped, “don’t worry about killing her, just bring her to me.”

“Yes, ma’am!” the group shouted.

Ashildr was completely surrounded by darkness inside the square duct, she barely had inches on each side. She was now about three feet from the opening. The dark figures moved away and the light flowed back in slightly, leaving a slither of visibility through her left eye to her right. The alarm stopped.

One pair of footsteps remained, walking around for several minutes. They walked along the side of the duct, close to Ashildr but separated by a thin sheet of aluminium. She heard the footsteps travelling on her right side, and then there was a sudden dull thud inches in front of her face. It disturbed the dust in the space.

Ashildr gasped slightly hoping whoever was there took that as the material reverberating. There were several small taps above her head, like fingertips drumming the surface. Ashildr slowly tried to silently shift her body away from that side of the ducting, hearing the drumming above her neck now.

There was another dull thud near where her stomach would have been had she not shifted her weight. She felt the metal shift slightly with the impact. Ashildr held her hand over her mouth trying to mute her shock.

“I know you can hear me,” the female voice boomed out. The lower notes held an echo through the metal for a second after.

Ashildr remained still, feeling her heart beating quickly in her chest.

The drumming resumed, moving past her hips, towards her feet.

“I know you are here,” said the voice slowly. “We take intruders very seriously here... Great fake name by the way.”

Another dull thud near her knees shook the whole duct. In the movement it caused her unzipped jacket to unravel, and the zip itself hit the aluminium with the smallest of taps.

The drumming fingers stopped still.

“There you are.” The footsteps retraced towards the opening of the duct.

Ashildr edged herself backwards as quietly as she could until her feet lowered down slightly and hit something solid, the zip dragged scraped along the bottom. Unable to see she rotated herself to be face up in the duct, and found her knees could now hang down. Seeing no other way out she dropped herself down as far as she could whilst tensing on the upper surface of the vent. She had to spin around again to get the angle to be able to hang by her hands from the bottom lip, feet dangling into darkness, banging on the side of the vent. Preparing herself for pain she dropped herself into the dark just as she heard the rustling of plastic above her, leaving the duct empty.

She dropped down about six foot, her feet landing on a solid surface with a loud thud. She twisted one of her ankles.

“Do you really think you can escape me?” said the voice bellowing through the space.

Ashildr felt around her, trying to gain a mental picture of her surroundings in pitch black. She was surrounded on all sides by the duct, until she noticed a faint blue hue around her. It appeared to be emitting from her waist, looking down she could see the reflection of the sunglasses in the dull dusty metal. She unhooked them from her belt loop and passed the sunglasses up awkwardly to her eyes, being careful not to drop them. The inner lenses were the source of the light, she put them on her face and saw the whole area illuminated in blue. There was some white writing in the top corner, but it allowed her to see the area in the gaps around her.

“There’s no use trying to escape me, I will find you,” said the voice, banging on the duct above. “I’ve found her, she’s in the duct, get down to the next floor!”

Looking down she saw the duct continued backwards, directly underneath where she had just been, and forwards towards the side of the building she needed to be. Making the decision to go forward, she worked out in her head how to go that direction so she would go head first. Dropping to her knees she squeezed herself backwards, craning her neck painfully to the side to get it past the top of the duct she was aiming for. 

Wearing the sunglasses she could see the way illuminated in front of her, straight ahead for twenty feet and then a left turn. Judging her position, to the right of her would be the outside of the building itself.

She crawled her way through, using her feet and elbows for traction. Ashildr was reminded of being in the trenches during one of the wars she experienced, doing something similar in a muddy tunnel in the pouring rain. She got to the junction and heard voices coming from that direction so decided to carry straight on to the next.

Another twenty feet down the corridor there was a second left turn, which Ashildr took, contorting her body sideways to bring her legs around. There was a loud bang behind her which stopped her still.

“We know where you are,” the voice said faintly. Ashildr carried on, slower this time, judging the voices to be at the previous junction. She approached a panel on the base of the ducting which she could see down into the space below. Careful not to move over it, she inched forward to gain a better view of her surroundings. This duct was in the ceiling, and she looked over a concrete floor lit with bright lights and strewn with new power cables. She could see shadows coming from the left. She decided to run, crawling quickly past the opening before they arrived and continuing another twenty feet until she reached another grate.

As she peered through this she saw movement below. A brunette flashed past, followed by ten figures with guns and black helmets.

There was a loud sniff below.

“Show yourself!” the woman said, “I know you are here.”

With another loud bang, this time three feet in front of her, a tube of light shone upwards at a slight angle. The bullet rattled to the base.

“Getting warmer,” she said, sniffing again.

Ashildr decided to stay still this time. The third bang was louder, accompanied by a discomfort in her left kneecap. Ashildr bit her hand when the wave of pain started, she had been shot many times before, and knew exactly how to react. She felt a few drops of blood drip down before her body healed.

“Do you have any idea how much this is costing me? And now I have to clean up your blood as well.”

“Soldiers,” she shouted, “Get the intruder.”

Ashildr heard the guns preparing by the clicking below, so she made a run for it. She crawled as quickly as she could, past one more grate as a shower of bullets rained behind her, a few of them caught her through her right foot and shin. She reached the end and took a left and ten yards in front saw an opening on her right. It had a ladder on the far wall. The bullets were catching up to her, pinging all around and making the duct very insecure. She put her hands on the rungs of the ladder and pulled herself through and up, until both hands and feet were securely out. She clambered up as fast as she could, losing her footing, twice having to pull herself up. Bullets continued to ricochet in the distance, she felt a few whistle in her direction.

After climbing for a few minutes she saw a half size door on her left, with a ledge to stand on. She stepped off the ladder and went to the door. She tried the handle but it wouldn’t turn. It felt pretty loose against its casing so, bracing herself against the rear wall she gave the door a forceful kick. It didn’t move so she tried again. On the third time it buckled, leading out to what looked like an access corridor.


	11. Chapter 11

Ashildr stood up and stretched her arms and legs, glad to be out of the confined space. She took the sunglasses off and her vision had a green haze over it until her retinas adjusted to normal colouring. There was a fire exit door to her right which had a small black panel with a red light on it. To her left was an access door. She put the sunglasses in her front right jacket pocket, walking towards the door on the left when her hand touched the key she’d taken from the door in the showroom. She approached the fire door, taking a brief glance behind her, she tried the key in the space, and it fit much to her surprise. She turned the key ninety degrees to the right and the light turned green. After removing the key, she pushed the bar and found herself outside on the fire escape staircases. She looked to the plastic sign which told her she was on Floor 20. It was very high up and there were very few buildings of this height around, she dared not glance down.

“Two floors to go, you can do this,” she said to herself. Looking up, there were many more flights above her, see-through due to the metal.

She made her way up to the twenty second floor. The doors were made out of chip board which she pushed and gained entry to the inside. There were no internal walls, very little equipment and the external windows had only been fitted half way round. There was a fierce wind rattling through the blue netting covering the outside. It was completely empty, nothing moved.

Ashildr walked towards the open side, pulling her jacket collar up against the wind. There was a spotlight covered in a green bag, and a square piece of plastic discarded on the floor. She picked it up and saw ‘COME GET, ME’ written on it, confirming she was in the right place. She felt cold on her left knee as she bent down, and her right leg and foot. She looked down at the holes, her skin formed perfectly underneath it. She sighed, looking at the exit wound on the back of her left knee which was two inches across. She could see the diner from this side of the building.

There was a noise of hurried footsteps on the far side. She spun around to see Clara running towards her, looking scared.

“Clara!” said Ashildr. “Oh my god! Are you alright?” She held open her arms to catch her.

Clara had dirty marks all over her top, her hair was messy and she was running with a pronounced limp. Her right forearm was very heavily bandaged.

“Not bad, considering,” she said out of breath as she stopped running and went to hug Ashildr.

“What happened to you?” Ashildr asked, hugging her tightly.

“One minute I was in the diner, stuck to that door, and the next I was inside a room tied to a stretcher, didn’t have a clue where I was,” said Clara with a hand on Ashildr’s shoulder through staggered breaths. “How did you know where to find me?” she exhaled deeply, “It’s good to see you,” she smiled at Ashildr.

“You shone a green light at the diner from this building and waved at me, holding a sign telling me to come,” Ashildr said.

“Right,” Clara said, confused. “That wasn’t me.”

“It was you, I’m sure.”

“I promise you it wasn’t, unless it is future me, then, maybe it was,” said Clara whilst shaking her head. “Doesn’t matter now, we have bigger problems.” She pointed to the direction she ran from. “Probably should get out of here, I was being chased by at least ten burly men with machine guns with some woman telling me how much damage I was causing to the air conditioning.” Clara started walking in the direction Ashildr had come from.

“They were after you?” said Ashildr surprised, following her, “I thought they were after me!”

“Oh, so that was you in the vents? They were after me!”

“Yes! They shot me several times as I tried to get away,” said Ashildr pointing to the holes in her jeans.

Clara looked down at the clean skin through the holes. “Impressive,” she said, “shame I can’t say the same, I caught a few ricochets, they didn’t go in, just grazes.”

Ashildr now saw several large smears of blood in between the black material on the left side of her thigh and a tear on her left upper arm. Clara continued to limp slightly as she walked.

“You have to help me,” said Clara holding on to her left side.

“I will Clara, come on, let’s find a way out.”

They went out to the plywood door, exposed to the biting cold again. There was the sound of footsteps a few floors beneath them, Ashildr looked down, estimating they were perhaps three or four floors below.

“Looks like we’re heading up,” said Clara.

“Yes,” nodded Ashildr in agreement, following Clara up the stairs.

On Floor 24 they stopped to catch their breath. Ashildr looked out, dizzy from the height, starting to get cold hands and a tingling on her cheeks from the breeze.

Clara looked out over the balcony, “What a view!”

“Be careful, I’m not sure you would survive a twenty-five floor fall,” Ashildr warned.

“Yes mum,” said Clara, taking her hands off the rail, holding them up and taking a pace backwards, smiling slightly towards her.

“Hang on,” said Ashildr, “when I was, sorry, you were being chased they said they had to keep you away from floor twenty five. What’s up there?”

“I don’t know,” said Clara. “Shall we look?”

The footsteps continued up the stairs, getting closer.

“Let’s go,” said Ashildr.

Clara followed Ashildr up the staircase. There was no chipboard door here, just concrete pillars, the floor was completely bare. The whole outside was covered in the blue material. The wind was flapping through gaps in the fabric, making a faint eerie whistling noise.

Ashildr walked slowly into the expanse, holding her arm out to keep Clara behind her. She turned right, heading towards a dimly flickering light, hidden by the central lift shaft. When she reached the edge of the wall she peered round the corner and then turned back. She looked at Clara and gestured silently for her to follow her.

Going around the wall still holding Clara behind her, the flickering light became more intense. Ashildr sneaked another quick glance.

She saw what looked like a red sarcophagus lying on the floor, the top open, like a treasure chest. It was full of some sort red liquid. There were wires coming out of the foot end that looked organic, they snaked towards the lift shaft and disappeared out of sight. There was a console of computer screens to the left of the sarcophagus, five in total with a large container full of the same red translucent gloop. A large opening of the blue material was cut out on the far wall, almost like a window.

Ashildr turned round to look at Clara, noticing she was now not there.

“Clara?” Ashildr said in an urgent whisper, “Where are you?”

Ashildr walked back the way they had come, looking for her.

“Clara!” she whispered. She looked round the wall and saw the armed soldiers trooping in the other side of the lift shaft. Ashildr spun around, there was nowhere she could run. She turned back towards the side of the sarcophagus and saw Clara on the opposite side, crouched behind a pillar, gesturing for her to join her.

Looking left and right, Ashildr ran in her direction.

“Where did you go?” whispered Ashildr.

“What? Look,” whispered Clara, pointing to the console.

The soldiers had surrounded it from the opposite side, forming a barrier.

Ashildr felt a sharp prod in the middle of her back and stood still. She turned her head around to see an armed soldier, wearing a black helmet, stab vest and a grimace on his face. She looked to her left and saw another soldier pointing a gun at Clara’s back. Ashildr raised her hands and walked in the direction she was being shifted in. Clara did the same. The soldiers moved towards the front of them.

“Ma’am, we have apprehended the intruder,” a soldier from the other side of the console shouted across the room.

The soldier pointed the gun at Ashildr shouted, “get on your knees!” She crouched down and held her hands behind her head, noticing there were now two soldiers in front her. Clara was out of her line of vision, she couldn’t turn her head. Ashildr looked down at the ground.

“Copy that, soldiers,” said the familiar authoritative female voice from behind Ashildr. She heard footsteps approaching, walking past her left side towards the sarcophagus. The female figure had her back to her, backlit by the light ahead.

“Not that you were much use... I had to do the last bit myself.”


	12. Chapter 12

Ashildr looked up to see the figure turn around and Clara smirking back at her. 

“Clara?” asked Ashildr, confused. “What’s happening?”

“Don’t patronise me, likening me to that silly girl,” Clara hissed. Her voice was more pronounced than Clara’s, without a trace of a northern accent. She noticed the cuts on her leg had disappeared.

Clara crouched on the floor about two feet away from Ashildr’s face.

“You,” she said, pressing her finger on Ashildr’s nose, “can call me Bonnie,” she winked.

“Where’s Clara?” said Ashildr, trying to understand what was happening.

“The pathetic thing is... safe...” Bonnie said slowly, “for now.”

“Who are you?” asked Ashildr, feeling emotional.

“I really don’t want to say ‘evil twin’ but I guess you could say... evil twin.”

“Evil twin, how?”

“Do I need to explain everything? I thought you were billions of years old, you must have seen a Zygon in your time?’ she said whilst standing up.

Ashildr gave her a blank look.

With that Bonnie threw her head back and with a loud squelch transformed into a seven foot high red creature, covered in plunger like suckers. She found the creature visually repulsive, seeing it dripping and sticky. The creature grunted and then with a loud squelch morphed back into Clara’s form.

Bonnie ran her fingers through her hair, straightening it out. Ashildr noticed she was now wearing a white shirt, black trousers and a cinched in black trench coat.

“Do you understand? Ring any bells in there?” Bonnie said, putting her finger to Ashildr’s left temple. She winked again, twice.

“No, can’t say it does,” replied Ashildr.

“Interesting,” she said raising her voice to the group of soldiers, “not even the five-billion year old remembers us.”

“I don’t remember a lot of things. Where is Clara?” she asked again.

“I much prefer looking like this, don’t you? Clara was always my favourite form, Osgood is, well, good, but Clara Oswald, she is excellent, I can really breathe as her!” she paused for a second and then said painfully through gritted teeth in a northern accent, “Help me! It’s Clara, I can control her!”

Bonnie walked over to the console, nodding to the soldier next to her.

“Bring her to me,” said Bonnie.

A solider behind Ashildr prodded her roughly in the back, and the soldier in front grabbed her jacket to pull her up. She walked towards where Bonnie was stood.

“You see, Me, Ashildr, the ‘Knightmare’ whatever the hell it is you are calling yourself these days,” she turned to face Ashildr, looking at her with large brown sneering eyes, “I know what you are.”

“Yeah? Like what?”

“You’re immortal,” she said. 

“So what if I am?” replied Ashildr.

Bonnie looked away from her, “We’ve been looking for you for a long time, Me. Imagine my delight when you turn up with my favourite suit on a rooftop half a mile away.”

“So it’s me you want?”

“Yes, it is Me I want.”

“But why?”

“For a moment, I thought you were clever. Your chamber awaits, Lady Me.”

Bonnie walked around the pod, holding her arms out but stopping suddenly, holding her side.

“Me, I can stop her, I’m on Floor 22.” Bonnie said, again through gritted teeth, as Clara.

“I guess Clara is not quite so pathetic as you make out, she’s getting through,” said Ashildr with a small smile.

“Clara, you are not doing this again. I can kill you right now. I have captured your immortal friend, do you understand me?”

“What’s with the paper?” asked Ashildr, quickly changing the subject.

“Why are you still talking?” Bonnie snapped at Ashildr. She turned to the console, placing her hands into the translucent liquid, and the sarcophagus began to pulsate with light.

“The paper... glad you noticed,” said Bonnie, quickly meeting her eyes with Ashildr’s. “We’re using the paper to, boost our numbers.”

“How so?”

“Well, the ‘Knightmare’,” she chuckled to herself, walking over to stand next to Ashildr, “great name, by the way. Let me show you. Bring her.”

The soldier prodded her again with his gun. Bonnie put her right arm across Ashildr’s shoulders, leading her right to the edge of the concrete floor and the gap in the blue fabric. She could fall straight down from here if she were pushed.

“Tell me what you see when you look out.” Bonnie asked, arm still across her shoulders.

“A long drop,” Ashildr said, looking down.

“I know it doesn’t scare you. You will answer me,” Bonnie snarled.

“Building sites,” Ashildr replied, seeing at least twenty from this vantage point.

“What specifically?”

“People, umm, materials? Cranes?” She noticed the thin wire of the crane hovering about forty feet in front of her.

“You know what I see? Space. Unused space with everything I need,” Bonnie smiled as she said it.

Ashildr thought for a minute, deciding what her next move would be.

“So you run every one of these building sites?”

“Not all of them, but most yes.” Bonnie smiled at her, willing her on to her next conclusion.

“So all these buildings...” Ashildr paused.

“... are full of people waiting to be converted to Zygons,” said Bonnie finishing off her sentence, impatient. “These buildings take years to build, and then even when they are sold lay unoccupied for years bought by foreign millionaires to make more money for themselves. It’s perfect.”

“How many people?”

Bonnie counted on her fingers, “One... two... three...” she paused, “about ten million, give or take.” She breathed in.

“Ten million people?!”

“An impressive number, don’t you think?”

“So every single building site in London-”

“Not all,” Bonnie interrupted. “There were a few we couldn’t get, the Shard for example. Someone else got that one. And Canary Wharf.”

“Impressive.”

“Exactly.”

“Is that where Clara is?”

Bonnie turned away from the edge towards the console. “Enough!”

“I still don’t understand how you’ve done it,” Ashildr said turning around, still stood on the edge. She felt the psychic paper in her back pocket shift uncomfortably like it did on the stairs earlier.

Bonnie sighed. “If a big scary monster turned up at your door would you let it in?”

“Probably not. Would depend what they were selling.”

“How about a letter with a big scary monster on it? Or a bill, that can be big and scary can’t it? These humans let thousands of letters, menus, postcards and leaflets into their houses every single day. As a way to capture people, it’s ingenious.” She paused looking proud, “If you wanted to kill someone with minimal effort you could just send a piece of paper laced with anthrax inside an envelope, because no-one can resist opening a letter. People always need takeaway menus and hipsters always need discount vouchers. We’re preparing for the next generation of Zygons, which thanks to you, will be immortal.”

“It was you! You gave out the vouchers that invaded the diner.” She stopped, thinking. “So why did you need to take Clara? Why not just me?”

“You didn’t touch any of the items, only she did. If she went I knew you would follow eventually, and you did, although much quicker than I was expecting,” she paused, “So predictable.”

“That was you too, of course.”

“What was?” Bonnie creased her forehead. She winked again. “Now, listen to me, here’s what we are going to do.”

Ashildr felt the psychic paper shift strongly in her back pocket.

“You are going to get in this pod, and then I can give life, immortal life to ten million Zygons. I can remain as Clara, I do like being Clara, excellent body,” she looked down at herself. “We have mass panic, followed by a war and then I rule supreme over my new master race.”

“You really are evil aren’t you?” Ashildr said.

“Bring her to me.”

The soldier went to grab hold of Ashildr’s jacket but missed as she fell backwards off the ledge, pushing herself off with jump into the air.


	13. Chapter 13

“No!” shouted Bonnie, running towards the edge, holding herself back using one of the concrete pillars.

Ashildr looked up as she was falling to see Bonnie’s head leaning over, a sneer on her face.

“Get her!” Ashildr heard Bonnie shouting as she fell.

The wind whistled past Ashildr’s ears as she fell quickly through the air, her arms initially flailing but now still. Clara’s jacket flapped intensely as she travelled. She closed her eyes, bracing herself for an impact on the ground.

Ashildr blinked when she suddenly found herself swinging and then hanging face down looking at the floor, about seven or eight floors up, her chest crushed by a black chain around her waist. She glanced up, seeing the chain attached to the hook of the crane wire as if it were an umbilical cord. The wire was ascending gently.

She shifted her weight to be vertical to hold on to the chain above her and saw the outer surface of the building forty feet away, continuing to get rise upwards. Touching the chain, it felt like the paper elephant from Clara’s flat.

She was level with the tenth floor now, this side had no fire escape. The external surface of the building finished roughly ten floors above. The crane wire disappeared off into the clouds above.

Ashildr threw her body back, trying to get some momentum. The wire didn’t move as she had very little weight behind her but she tried again, this time leaning forwards. She felt a small movement in the wire. She repeated the action several times and now had three or four feet of swing.

Eventually she had over twenty feet of distance but she was still short of reaching the outer surface of the building. The floors with the blue material were beginning to draw level with her. She continued to swing, utilising the momentum.

The crane wire stopped still level with the thirtieth floor, where the blue material stopped. Ashildr continued to swing, hoping to get enough purchase to make one of the concrete floors. This time the chain released her from around her waist with a loud rustle as she reached the height of the swing and felt herself being thrown towards the building.

She held out her arms, readying herself to grab whatever she could. She hit the blue material, and unable to hold onto anything found herself falling straight down again. Her right hand caught a metal object, a scaffolding pole, almost dislocating her shoulder with the downward force.

She breathed a large sigh of relief. Looking down she couldn’t make out anything below her, just a dark haze. Her hand was beginning to slip, so she swung her left hand to meet it and found a ledge for her feet when she pulled herself up.

Ashildr contorted herself to get through a gap in the blue fabric, jumping off the scaffolding onto the concrete building floor. She noticed the chain still hanging around her waist, it began to fold up into itself, releasing her chest, allowing it to crack back to its normal shape. She watched it crease up and go towards her back pocket, into the psychic paper. She took it from her left back pocket to see the last of the chain disappearing in to it. Chalkboard style writing appeared on it afterwards, it said ‘Come get Me, Floor 22’, which then faded away. She replaced it into her jeans.

This floor was barely complete, the concrete still being set, large iron bars and yellow supporting pillars every five or six feet in every direction. Ashildr noticed a large number ‘29’ on the outside of the lift shaft in front of her, the entrances still being built. She saw the metallic skeletal form of the crane base through the gaps. She carefully did a lap of the floor trying to work out the best way to descend the building. There was nobody else there. She saw a discarded fluorescent yellow vest and a red hard hat lying on top on a toolbox, she picked them up and put them on. The hat was too large for her, so she took it off, adjusting the plastic dial on the back until it did.

There was a yellow ladder on the right hand floor which looked to be the same as the one she’d tried to climb before the alarm went off. Walking up to it, she looked down through the floor, seeing it disappear to a spot below. Ashildr stepped onto the ladder, counting the floors as she descended the rungs, grateful it was a break of climbing upwards.

She stepped off the ladder at Floor 26, hesitating, unsure if Bonnie and the soldiers would still be on the floor below. She decided to continue, treading quietly and slowly down the rungs. She stole a glance backwards when she was halfway. Bonnie was at the console, Ashildr heard her giving orders, hidden by the computer screens, so Ashildr held her breath and very slowly crept down the ladder.

“Commander calling tactical team,” said Bonnie in the background.

“Team leader to commander go ahead,” came a tinny, crackly reply from a male voice.

“What is the status on the intruder?”

“Ma’am we are completing a ground area search, no sign as of yet, I will keep you updated.”

“Copy that, you will find her and you will bring her to me,” Bonnie replied, defiant.

“Copy that commander.”

There was a loud bang on the other side of the floor which made Bonnie turn around and walk towards it.

“Who’s there? Tell me, now!”

Ashildr looked back one more time, seeing Bonnie walking off to investigate, out of Ashildr’s sight.

Ashildr continued slowly down, until eventually her head ducked below the floor and she paused to exhale. She stepped off the ladder on Floor 22, where she had run into Bonnie earlier.

She walked quietly to the other side of the floor, noticing there was a finished internal door near the side where the outer windows were complete. The rest of the floor was still and silent. Pushing the door she walked into a dark room, lit by a dim red light which spilled out onto the concrete. It was one finished apartment with walls, no doors, no furniture, exactly like the one she’d been shown around earlier. She closed the door softly behind her. Under the dim light Ashildr took a look around. She fished for the sunglasses in the front right pocket of Clara’s jacket and then put them on, illuminating the room in blue.

In the top right hand corner of the right lens there was the same white writing as before, but now there was a little dart shaped white arrow beneath it. It moved as Ashildr turned her head. 

In the room there were what looked like oval eggs all around her, in the bathroom, lounge, kitchen and both bedrooms. She counted about forty in total. They were all linked by an umbilical like mucus covered tubing. Everything in the rooms glistened like it was wet, covered in a thin sheen of moisture. Ashildr’s boots stuck to the floor slightly, pulling her shoes in with every step. The holes in her right shoe were letting in the substance, it felt like jelly on the bare skin of her foot.

The white dart on the sonic sunglasses was pointing behind her. Taking this as a sign she spun around and followed where it was leading her. She went into one of the bedrooms and followed the marker to a pod in the corner. As she approached it the white dart was replaced by a small tick.

The pod was the same height as her, a dripping wet, sticky bulbous egg shape that looked as if had been coughed up from the back of a builder’s throat. It had a small window on the top front which Ashildr wiped off with her right ripped sleeve, the zip clinking on the solid surface. As she leant over the front of her knee touched the pod, and she felt the jelly mucus through the bullet hole. It made her jump back and caused her shoulders to shudder.

She searched for a way into the pod, seeing a small lip two thirds of the way up. She put her hands underneath it, screwing her face up as her fingers slipped through the slime until they hit grooves on the underside either side of the window. She pushed up and the top of the pod opened with a wet, sucking noise.


	14. Chapter 14

Inside was Clara, her hair matted, unconscious. As Ashildr moved forward, the remaining front part of the pod split vertically into two causing her to jump back unexpectedly.

“Clara?” said Ashildr quietly, “can you hear me?”

Clara still remained unresponsive, held in the pod around her waist.

Ashildr put a hand up to her cheek, brushing it slightly with her right thumb. Clara still remained motionless. She pulled at the belt around Clara’s waist as hard as she could. It released like a seatbelt lurching her forward, still unconscious, towards Ashildr pressing the sunglasses into her face and almost knocking her to the ground. Clara was still showing no signs of waking up.

Ashildr knew she had to move, presuming Bonnie would notice Clara was now out of the pod. She let her fall to the floor, holding Clara underneath the armpits and dragging her out of the room, leaving a dusty void in the wet floor in her wake. She pulled her into the hallway area and then left Clara to open the door behind her.

Out in the main floor of the building, she took the sunglasses off and prepared her route mentally. Ashildr lugged Clara through to the chipboard door outside to the fire escape staircase, smearing a dark gloop over the floor as she did. It was obvious enough where she had taken Clara to, she had to get away from this area fast. The cold permeated all over her body, kept at bay by adrenaline.

“Come on Clara, wake up,” she said to her, still getting no response. On the staircase, she made an attempt to pick her up completely, managing for a few seconds but her legs buckling under the weight. She was strong, but her small frame couldn’t support another person, she was also very close to the edge of the building and knew Clara would not survive the fall.

Ashildr pulled Clara up again under her arms, walking down the stairs backwards dragging her towards her. She managed the first half flight easily, the second down to the landing of the floor below was difficult after one of Clara’s shoes stuck in the inner railing of the staircase. She laid Clara down on the landing and took a sharp intake of breath, exhausted. 

She continued down three more flights to Floor 18. She found the fire door on the concrete landing propped open by a brick on the floor. She barged into the door pulling Clara after noticing that there was no slug like trail being left now, long since worn off whilst going down the stairs.

Once Clara was safely inside, Ashildr moved the brick away and closed the door shut, unable to be opened from the other side. There was a strip light on the ceiling, and the walls were made of grey breeze blocks, it was a small square room with several electric boxes whirring further in. There were a few short scaffolding poles strewn on the floor, and a door with no windows at the end. Ashildr went to the door, noticing there was a lock mechanism near the handle. She looked through the crack of the door without opening it to see the lock was not engaged, so she turned it as quietly as possible to the left to secure them in the room. She looked for security cameras, there were none. They were safe, for now.

Ashildr sat down on the floor, her back against the wall, knees up to her chest trying to regain her breath. She took off the fluorescent vest and set it aside, removing her jacket, folded it up and put it under Clara’s head, wiping a few strands of matted hair off her face. Ashildr took out the bracelet holding her own hair up and fanned it out, idly combing her fingers through the long strands before replacing it.

She heard the alarm sound, looking up, realising they were only now looking for them. A strobe went off on the ceiling near the internal door. Ashildr turned her head away from the flashing light after a few minutes as it was giving her a headache. 

She looked at Clara’s head, upside down near her knees. She noticed the bandage on Clara’s right arm had tiny specks of red on the white outer, some bruising around both wrists. She laughed to herself, “looks like you didn’t go without a fight.”

After about twenty minutes the alarm and the flashing light stopped. Ashildr cradled her head in her hands, rubbing at her temples happy to be resting in silence. She looked at Clara, peaceful in sleep, willing her to wake up.

Half an hour later Clara began to rouse, at first creasing her eyebrows and then slowly opening her eyes one by one. She lifted her right hand to rub her eyes, grimacing in pain.

“What?” she said weakly. “Where, where am I?” Clara raised up onto her elbows looking around her. “This, this is not good.”

Ashildr looked at her, glad she was awake. “Clara, I’d probably give it a minute before moving.”

“My head is killing me,” she said, painfully shaking her head. “What’s happened to me?”

“I just want to say, I apologise in advance for any mysterious bruises you may find.”

“Why would I have mysterious bruises?” Clara said suspiciously.

Ashildr hesitated, “I’ve kind of just dragged you across the floor of a building and down four flights of metal stairs.”

“Right,” Clara said, taking time to process what Ashildr said. She sat up and started to take stock of her injuries. “I know about my right forearm,” she said looking at her wrists to see them both heavily bruised, “what happened to my wrists?”

“I found you with those.”

“They hurt, a lot,” Clara winced as she touched her right wrist. 

“Not sure but it looks like you might have been held down.” 

“I hope the TARDIS comes with travel insurance,” Clara said, laughing slightly before putting her hands to her head.

“Do you remember anything?” Ashildr asked.

“The last thing I remember was being in the diner, pinned against the wall by the scissors, about to be eaten by a paper transformer.”

“You don’t remember anything?”

“No,” Clara said, confused. “Where are we, anyway?” She looked around the empty room.

“A nearby building site, about twenty floors up, I don’t think we’ll be found for the moment.”

“And what are we doing here?” Clara asked, beginning to get impatient.

Ashildr steeled herself to explain the finer details. “Well, right now, I guess we’re being hunted by soldiers and a woman who can turn into a big red sucker monster. Another thing,” she paused, “she was calling herself your... evil twin.”

“Evil twin?” Clara said deadpan.

“Evil twin, that’s what she said.”

“Wow. Ok. Does she look like me? Wait, hang on, no, if she’s my twin, of course she looks like me. Does she look... evil?”

“She pretended to be you earlier and I was fooled, until she started talking less... northern, you know, like a posh version of you.”

“Does she have a name?” Clara said.

“She’s calling herself Bonnie. Not a big fan to be honest.”

“Oh god,” said Clara, “not again.” Her face dropped.

“Wait, you know her?” said Ashildr, curious.

“The last time the Doctor prevented a Zygon war-“

“-yes a Zygon! That’s what she called them,” interrupted Ashildr.

“I was kidnapped and put in a pod underneath my house. I imagined I was in my flat and tried to stop her shooting down a plane through a TV.”

“I hate to tell you, but they’ve done it again.”

“Seriously! Why is it always me?” Clara ran her hands despairingly through her hair, finding it matted and still damp with mucus. Her heart sinking, she paused. “Does this,” she waved her hand around her face, “look as bad as I think it does?”

Ashildr nodded. “Although I’ve been climbing up stairs, wearing sweaty builder’s jackets and dangling from crane wires, so hardly one to speak.”

“Well, thanks to Bonnie, I’ve destroyed more clothes and my hair’s ruined. I knew I should have kept that apron on...” she laughed.

Ashildr laughed back.

“You know the Doctor, the old one, not this one, once took me to Las Vegas, except it turned out to be a leaking Soviet Submarine in the 1980s, my hair took weeks to recover.” She smiled, making light of the bad situation.

“He’s always looked pretty old to me. Like your dad or something,” sniggered Ashildr.

“The last time, before he changed, he used to wear bow ties and couldn’t walk past a fez without putting it on,” she reminisced, “now he just looks like some dad rocker magician. You know, he used to go round saying fezzes were cool.” Clara laughed to herself, shaking her head.

“So what do we do now?” asked Ashildr. 

“Well, we need to find a way out, that would be first on my list.” Clara replied.

“And there’s also the problem of all the people.”

“What people?” Clara said, snapping her head to look at Ashildr.

“The ten million people she’s captured ready to turn into Zygons by putting me into a pod on the twenty-fifth floor.”

“You’re joking,” exclaimed Clara. “Ten... million?”

“All of the building sites in London, all full, captured by the weird paper, waiting to become immortal Zygons. Yes.”

“So that’s what she wants you for?” said Clara, now realising the scale of Bonnie’s plan.

“I jumped off the twenty-fifth floor just as she was about to put me in it.”

“Impressive work,” said Clara nodding. “Wow. Ok. Well then, I guess a few more urgent issues have come up.”

“What’s the plan?”

“The plan, the plan, the... plan,” said Clara, thinking, holding her hands up to her head. “Ok, here’s the plan. One, stop Bonnie. Two, fix the paper and three... free the people. Oh yes, and then four, find a way out.”

“So, save the world then?” Ashildr folded her arms.

“Yes. I guess so.” Clara’s eyes began to light up as a familiar feeling of excitement washed over her.

They both went silent, mulling this plan over.

“Wait, hold on a minute. How did you know where to find me?” Clara asked.

“In the diner, I looked out at the skyline and saw a green light coming from this building. I used those old binoculars and saw you waving with a sign telling me to come and get you. I found you in the pod by using these,” she picked up Clara’s jacket and fished in the pocket for the Sonic Sunglasses and held them out.

“Ashil-, sorry, Me,” Clara said, a huge grin appearing on her face, “I could hug you right now! These,” she took the sunglasses from Ashildr, holding them up with a smile, “are our ticket out of here.”


	15. Chapter 15

Ashildr crossed her arms. “Really? I’ve only been able to use them to see in the dark, and a tiny little arrow in the corner pointed me to your pod upstairs.”

Clara screwed up her face, tilting her head slightly. “Maybe they haven’t got used to you yet, how strange, they’ve always worked for me. Pick anything else up on your way? I need to know what we have to work with.”

Ashildr emptied her pockets. She brought out the Doctor’s Psychic Paper, the fire alarm key and the OSG business card from Emily. “That’s everything.”

“This is looking good, excellent work,” nodded Clara, “Very resourceful.”

“Thanks.”

“Do you think you can run from me?” Clara said in a sharp English accent and a smirk.

“What?” said Ashildr, confused.

“I can find you, and then I will kill you.” Clara spoke using Bonnie’s voice.

“Like to see you try,” replied Ashildr.

“Do you understand me, I can kill you.”

“Leave Clara alone, it’s me you want.”

Clara gasped loudly and banged her hands against the wall behind her, Ashildr stood up and instinctively stepped away from her.

“What just happened?” said Clara, back to her own voice.

“Bonnie must be getting through to you, I saw you talking through her earlier. You told me where to find you, the connection must be working both ways.”

Clara stood up with great effort, grimacing as she did, using the wall to support herself.

“I feel like both my legs have been broken, I would be in less pain if you’d thrown me down the stairs!” Clara strained.

“Do it yourself next time,” Ashildr muttered.

“OK, OK, point taken.”

Clara pushed Ashildr on the shoulder playfully, looking at her and smiling.

“Right then,” Clara patting her hand on Ashildr’s shoulder briefly, “let’s see what we can do.”

Clara looked around, half limping painfully to the electrical boxes in the corner of a room. She stood in front of the grey box on the left.

Ashildr picked up Clara’s jacket and put it on, collecting her things and stashing them in the front right pocket. She followed Clara to look at the boxes.

Clara tried to open the grill on the front to no avail. She put her right index finger to her mouth, pausing for thought, before having an idea. “Pass me the business card.”

Ashildr retrieved it from her pocket and handed it over.

“I’m going to try something,” Clara said. She put the card in between the door and the casing, moving the card up and down to release the latch. The door fell open. 

“Yes! Clara Oswald, lock picking extraordinaire! I thank you.” She did a small bow and put the card in her front pocket.

“Say what you want,” replied Ashildr nonchalantly. “I once broke in to Fort Knox. Let me get the other door.”

Ashildr planted one strong hard sideways kick at the middle of the door panel and it fell completely off, clattering on the ground.

Clara looked at her, jaw dropped down.

“Remind me,” she said, a little scared, “never to fight you.”

Ashildr looked at her and raised a half smirk.

Inside the two boxes were three computer screens, and several hundred flashing green and red lights.

“Sunglasses please,” said Clara, holding out a hand in the same way a doctor would ask for a scalpel. Ashildr passed them to her.

Clara put on the sunglasses and they made a soft whirring, almost like cat purring.

“They like you,” said Ashildr a little jealous. “Maybe they were looking for you too.”

“Maybe,” she tapped the top of them. The computer screens sprung to life, displaying building blueprints and statistical data in neon blue writing against the black screen. The top right hand corner had a large OSG logo. Clara touched this and it took her to a secure area which required a password. She tried to access it with the sunglasses, and the screen flashed red saying, ‘ACCESS DENIED. TWO ATTEMPTS REMAINING.’

“Ok, we may have a problem,” said Clara.

“What?” Ashildr tried to get information from the screen.

“There’s only one person who would know this password.” Clara held up a finger.

“Let me guess, Bonnie,” said Ashildr, a look of fear creeping onto her face.

Clara held her left hand to her right wrist, feeling a heartbeat. “I can feel her heartbeat, odd. I kind of got used to not having one. I wonder if I can access her mind.”

“Clara, don’t, she’ll find us if you let her in,” Ashildr pleaded.

“I need to find out what she is doing, the sunglasses can download after we’re in.” Clara tried to slow the heartbeat, find its source and tap into it. She closed her eyes, exhaling.

“Be careful, we’re safe here.”

“Oh Clara, there you are,” said Bonnie through Clara. “I have what you want, but you will not get it.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure Bonnie, I’ve seen inside this mind.”

“I’ve seen inside your mind Clara. I can kill you with a single thought, you know I’m not lying.”

“Let me try looking here...” Clara rolled her eyes back.

“No Clara, you will not get the password, you will not get in.”

Clara typed a password into the computer screen as Bonnie possessed her voice. It was rejected, another red message appeared on the screen leaving one more attempt.

“Unlucky, you will need to try harder. You will not get the password,” Clara’s face contorted into a sneer as Bonnie.

“Me,” said Clara to Ashildr, “she has locked it away again, listen carefully, you might need to type what I tell you.”

“Ok,” said Ashildr, unable to stop watching Clara having a fight of words with Bonnie. She listened, fascinated.

“I’m going inside her mind, Me.” Clara said.

“I can kill you, don’t even try,” said Bonnie.

“Let me ask you a question,” replied Clara.

“Only if I can ask you a question back, you will not win.” Bonnie 

“Do you know the password?” Clara asked.

“Yes. Do you want to die Clara?” sneered Bonnie.

“I’m trying my best not to. Where in your mind is it?”

“In my memory. Do you value the life of your little immortal friend?” Bonnie said.

“I’m not little,” said Ashildr over Bonnie.

“Right now, more than anything. If I have your mind that means the password is in my mind, correct?” Clara began smiling.

“Yes, Clara-“

“Gotcha,” said Clara with a grin on her face, “type this... g.d.2.1.v.b.x.k.l.5.6.8.4.1.2.g.c”

“What sort of password is that?” mocked Ashildr, typing it in and seeing the green ‘correct’ message. Clara pressed the top of the sunglasses and they whirred away, collecting the information. Pictures of cranes, building blueprints and numbers fluttered across the screen. There was a percentage marker on the screen, indicating how much more information there was to download. It said 2%.

“How does that feel Bonnie?” said Clara, defiant. 8%.

“I’m glad you visited me. Where are you Clara?” Bonnie said. 13%.

“Not telling you, kinda busy at the moment. What are you planning to do?” 19%.

“Take over the word make all my Zygon brothers and sisters immortal. Where are you Clara? You will answer.” 23%.

“Somewhere you can’t find me. How are you doing all this?” Clara put a hand up to her head. 28%.

“You tell me. Where are you? I can make you tell me.” 35%.

Clara’s face became strained. “Eighteenth floor. What did you do to me in the pod?” 41%.

“Oh, now you’ve noticed,” Bonnie contorted Clara’s lips into a smile, “I’ve given you a little something. Where on the eighteenth floor are you?” 48%.

“The control room, near the fire escape. Why have you captured me again?” 53%. Ashildr was beginning to get nervous.

“I really do like being you Clara. What are you doing in the control room?” 57%.

“Finding answers. Where are you controlling this from?” Clara looked down. 61%.

“The trees. What’s happening to your arm Clara?” Bonnie laughed. 67%.

Clara looked down at her arm, the tiny spots of blood now started to darken and spread out across the bandage. 70%

“Bonnie, no! It hurts!” said Clara, fighting back the pain. “How are you doing that?” 73%.

“I’m inside your mind, that’s how. Do you think you can hold out forever?” 78%

“I can try,” Clara gritted her teeth. “Why are you doing this to me?” Clara’s bandage was almost now completely red, she was doubled over on the floor, her arm hanging limply by her side. 83%

Ashildr looked at the screen with 17% to go and wished it to finish quicker. There was movement in her front right pocket. She felt into her jacket and brought out the psychic paper. She looked at it, it said, ‘put me on the floor and stand back’. Confused, Ashildr put it on the ground. It began to sprout a grey plume of paper, like a fountain.

“Because I enjoy hurting you. Who’s that at the door Clara?” 92%

There was a loud knock. The door began to rattle in its frame, a large body fighting against it. Clara closed her eyes tightly. 93%.

Ashildr saw the psychic paper travel towards the ceiling, creating a fake wall that the two of them could stand behind, it blended in seamlessly with the real wall and felt just as strong. 94%.

Clara took a sharp intake of breath to the back of her throat, her body collapsing to the floor. She took the sunglasses off her and placed them in front of the console. Ashildr dragged Clara behind the fake partition, sitting her on the floor with her knees up to her chest, watching the percentage climb up. 96%.

The banging continued at the door. There was the faint sound of heavy footsteps arriving outside. 97%.

“Come on, come on!” said Ashildr to herself quietly. 98%.

The door began to splinter, cracking loudly, but still holding its integrity for a few more vital seconds. 99%

She held the sunglasses ready to take them once it completed. The wall had a small gap in it, enough for her to squeeze through. 99%.

Ashildr held her breath as she waited, knowing the door wasn’t going to hold out much longer. 100%. 

She threw the sunglasses behind the wall and breathed in tight to make the gap. It sealed up around her, surrounding her with complete darkness as the soldiers burst in.

She heard the crowd of voices enter the room. One shouted, “It’s clear, ma’am.’

Ashildr heard a set of footsteps walking around the room. There was a loud sniff.

“They were here,” said Bonnie. “Only way out is the fire escape. Soldiers, find them and bring them to me. Now!” she shouted. “Bring them to twenty five. Kill them if you have to. Just bring them to me.”


	16. Chapter 16

There was a large crash of metal against concrete. The footsteps filed out, marching inches past them towards the fire escape. She heard the footsteps on the metal stairs and then nothing.

A sound of rustling and light began to stream in to where Ashildr was hiding. The room was now empty, the fire escape door was wide open, rattling in the breeze. The other door was splintered and hanging from its hinges. The fake wall folded itself back into the psychic paper wallet on the floor.

Clara began to stir, “Me?”

“Don’t worry, we’ve lost them for now.”

Clara’s arm was bleeding heavily, the bandage was dripping with blood. She looked very pale. Clara picked up the sunglasses from her lap and put them on top of her head.

“I feel like the Terminator,” sighed Clara weakly.

“You certainly look like it.” Ashildr replied, laughing.

“What happened?” Clara asked, making a move to stand up and then thinking twice about it.

“The psychic paper, it created a fake wall for us to hide behind.”

“You’re joking! How did that happen?” she said, clearly still dazed.

“It seems to be making objects to protect us both, it made me a chain so stop my fall earlier.”

“Interesting, told you this would be useful,” said Clara, picking up the psychic paper, kissing it cheekily and putting it into her back pocket. “Did I get into the system?”

“Yes, only just though.” Ashildr looked out of the fire door, the sky had begun to cloud over. “So what’s our plan now?”

Clara pushed herself up with a loud groan, leaning against the wall and holding her head. “well, there appears to be some kind of psychic or telepathic field which is controlling all the paper and captured people, the psychic paper is making three dimensional objects. We need to disable that first. Why isn’t all the paper in here coming to life?”

Ashildr paused for a moment before remembering. “It’s paperless,” she said, “they told me downstairs in reception.”

“Clever, very clever,” she nodded, “and environmentally friendly, like it, but... we need to turn it off, whatever it is.”

“Where do we start?”

Clara put the sunglasses on. “My guess, judging by the fact Bonnie is getting a little edgy, is that it’s here somewhere.” The glasses whirred. “There are three main power sources in the building, one on the first floor, the second on Floor 25 and the other on the roof, more specifically on the crane above us.”

“I’m thinking the roof. The crane goes through the centre of the building, and the thing they were trying to put me inside on the twenty-fifth floor looked like it was hooked up to it.” Ashildr said as she looked out of the fire escape and then back to Clara.

“So, the roof it is then. How do we get up there without being seen?” Clara asked.

“Fire exit staircase through that door to the top, the indoor stairs finish on the next floor, but I’d imagine they are covered with soldiers. I’m thinking there must be some sort of construction lift.”

“Let’s see what these say,” Clara said tapping the top of the sunglasses. She saw the building blueprints in front of her eyes. “Ok, there is one on this side. Bad news, it’s on the ground floor and has been disabled due to the fire alarm,” Clara said, her head looking as if it was reading.

“They evacuated a few hours ago, figures,” said Ashildr, nodding.

“We need to get up to the roof without them seeing us.”

Clara walked through the broken door towards the darker area of the main floor, and behind a large dust sheet found the construction lift. She pressed the button on a nearby silver panel, nothing happened. 

“Ok, so that’s not working.” She looked at the panel with the sunglasses, and it crackled with a spark and a small puff of smoke. There was a faint creak and then the sound of a clunky mechanism. It started moving, looking like an oversized bike chain inside. “Looks like it’s working now,” said Clara with an air of pride.

“Nice,” said Ashildr, “quite noisy though, I think they might notice this has started.”

“Maybe they will, maybe they won’t. I’m sure we’ll find out,” Clara said undeterred.

“Worth a go, absolutely.”

The lift took just over a minute to arrive on the landing. Clara opened the heavy yellow serrated door and stepped onto the lift platform. Ashildr followed behind her and slammed the door shut loudly. The lift was small, designed for six people at a time. It was rickety, barely skeletal in its structure, as if the absolute minimum materials were used. The doors closed and it began to ascend quickly into the chill of the outside, inside the blue material, the floors of the building flashed past. 

They reached the top, Floor 32. The wind was stiff, whistling around the metal carriage. Ashildr opened the door and stepped off onto the concrete. Clara followed her, leaving the door open, to reduce the risk of them being followed. She aimed the sonic sunglasses at the panel, setting it off with another spark.

“Just to make doubly sure,” she nodded at Ashildr. This floor was bare, no covering and had partially completed concrete pillars with iron innards poking out. It had the look of an empty multi-storey car park. The ceiling was completed across half of the floor, and there were red and white safety barriers around the outer perimeter.

The crane soared out of the centre of the building, a blue gleaming metallic tower rising up into the clouds. Through the haze there was a bright red light on the top, the sky was beginning to go dark, the smell of rain drifted in the air. In between gaps in the clouds there was the odd gap of sunshine, cutting through like laser beams.

There was a large green portacabin on the uncovered side of the floor on their left, it had a dim light coming from inside, and was connected to a grey electrical box marked with a yellow and black lightning style hazard sign.

“I say we try in there,” said Clara, “I bet there’s tea.”

“Let’s go,” said Ashildr.

They walked up to the door and Clara tried the handle. It was locked.

“Of course it’s locked,” said Clara, moving towards the small window on the right hand side. It was open at the top, but the small siding panel was too small to get a hand inside, let alone a person.

Ashildr walked up to the door and tried the handle a few more times. Clara heard a large snap.

“It appears the door’s open,” said Ashildr as it fell towards her.

“And they say Vikings are subtle!” said Clara, impressed.

“Do they?”

“Of course they do,” Clara said, loaded with sarcasm.

Ashildr stepped up into the cabin first, Clara joined her a second later. Inside was a small office, dimly lit by a tube light on the ceiling. There was a grey desk scattered with blueprints, printed pictures and schematics on translucent acetate, like the business card Ashildr had shown her. The desk had a small collection of stationery and a large set of keys on the right hand side. Above the desk was a shelf that looked it was about to fall off the wall at any moment, and it overflowed with plastic box files, radios, electrical tape and a small first aid kit. On the wall to the right there was a large laminated map of London with many blue crosses marked on it, and one single red cross towards the middle.

In one corner there was a coat stand with several black fleeces hung casually, a fluorescent jacket and two hard hats. In the other corner there was a waist high brown cupboard, the door half open. On the top was a two slice toaster and a dirty electric kettle. Next to the cupboard was a small fridge with a handful of mugs placed on top, several half full. Above this on the wall was a large whiteboard covered in grid of black electrical tape, the top row had the days of the week and the left column had various construction teams.

Clara sat down on the cheap battered leather swivel chair and rolled her legs under the desk. Ashildr pushed a couple of the mugs back and perched on top of the fridge.

“See, I told you there’d be tea,” said Clara, nodding towards the cups next to her. “Builders love it, hence, you know, builders tea.”

“I hope their tea is better than yours.”

“I very much doubt it,” Clara said shaking her head.

“So what are we looking for?” asked Ashildr, casting her eyes around the room.

“Not sure, anything that will tell us what the hell is going on would be a good start I suppose.”

Clara shuffled the plastic acetates around the desk, searching for anything useful. She looked at a map, a smaller version of the one on the wall but without the crosses marked on.

Ashildr studied the whiteboard, erasing odd lines with her finger as she read.

“Hang on a minute,” said Clara, tilting her head and standing up out of her seat.

“What?” said Ashildr, turning around to face her.

“This map,” said Clara, pointing to it, “I recognise this area.” She got up to look at the larger map on the wall, putting her finger on the red cross. She turned her head looking out of the window at other buildings visually. “This red dot,” she tapped the wall, “is us.”

Ashildr moved around to face the map, standing next to Clara.

“So what are the blue crosses?” asked Ashildr.

“Not sure,” Clara said, taking the map back to the desk. She picked up a permanent marker and put a dot on their location, she looked for some of the blue crosses and marked them too. She left the office and went to stand outside. She looked at the horizon and spun the map to set it against the skyline.

“You see, the Shard, it’s there, and we’re here,” she pointed. “My flat is over there,” she waved in the direction of the diner. She paused, holding her finger over the map. She looked out at the surroundings. One of the security barriers made a noise nearby, falling over in the wind.

“So...” Clara said, moving the map around, tapping one of the marks, “This blue dot here should be...”

They looked in the direction that was marked and saw another identical large blue crane rising out from the centre of a building site. They chose another dot, and then four more and found all of them had the same metallic blue structures attached. The all had the UT logo emblazoned on them in white neon lights.

“I think it’s safe to say it’s definitely something to do with the cranes, isn’t it?”

Ashildr looked up above her, holding her head almost horizontally to see the top. “I agree, the cranes, definitely.”

“Fancy a little exercise?” said Clara, grimacing.

“Not really,” Ashildr said, “I’ve spent all day climbing this damn building!”

Clara went back inside the office. She went for the first aid kit on the shelf, taking the largest bandage she could find and held it out to Ashildr, her arm was still dripping slightly. “Can you help me put this on?”

“Yes,” said Ashildr, unwrapping the bandage from the cellophane, putting on it over the first. “So our plan is?”

“Climb the crane, save the world.” Clara said, an excited look possessing her face.


	17. Chapter 17

“That’s it?” Ashildr tied off the bandage as tightly as she had the first.

“Simple.” Clara grimaced at the pain.

Ashildr finished the bandage, and then walked to the coat stand, picking up one of the black fleeces. She put it on, along with the padded jacket. She offered a fleece to Clara. It had the OSG logo on the left side of the chest.

“Thanks,” said Clara, taking the jacket, “not that I need it, I don’t feel the cold anymore, but I suppose it might protect me from the elements.” She took the sunglasses off her head and put them into the pocket of the fleece.

“That’s better,” said Ashildr, buttoning up the jacket, turning the collar up, relieved it did not smell sweaty. “I am freezing!”

“What are those holes in your jeans?” Clara asked, noticing them for the first time.

“I was shot in my knee and my legs, and my feet, I told you earlier. Oh wait, that must have been Bonnie.”

“Why were you shot? What did you do to make them shoot you?” Clara laughed.

“Don’t worry, I’ll live, I always do,” she sighed. “Just need to throw these away when we’re done saving the world.”

“When we finish, we are going shopping.”

“Shopping? Deal,” nodded Ashildr in agreement.

Clara picked up the map, folded it in half twice and gave it and the large set of keys to Ashildr.

“Just in case we need them, keys are always useful.”

Ashildr put them in the pocket of her fluorescent jacket, “Of course.”

Clara and Ashildr walked out towards the base of the crane, it reached up at least ten floors above them. It was bitterly cold, Ashildr’s face, hands and thighs were starting to feel numb. The clouds were beginning to close in leaving a blue, grey and purple hue in the sky.

There was a small doorway into the spine of the crane, it lead to a spindly steel staircase inside the gleaming blue outer shell. They walked through it and stood on the stairs, they wobbled slightly under their weight. Ashildr looked down, seeing the staircase disappear into the shadows a few floors beneath her.

“Let’s do this,” said Clara with a nod, looking upwards.

Clara went first, climbing the first ten flights still with a slight limp, Ashildr following close behind. The temperature was decreasing the further up they climbed. The metal handrail on the staircase was becoming so icy cold it was almost impossible to hold on to. There was a large grey box on top of the half completed floor.

“Great view from up here!” said Clara brightly.

“If you say so,” replied Ashildr, not looking, continuing to stare at her feet.

“Don’t tell me you’re afraid of heights!” Clara couldn’t help but laugh.

“I fell off a two hundred floor building once, not so much afraid, I’m not afraid of many things, I just don’t like the height.”

“I would not have thought that,” said Clara, continuing to climb the stairs.

“Aren’t you afraid of anything?”

“I was once I suppose, but then I met the Doctor, not very much left to fear once you’ve travelled with him.”

“I can imagine.”

They were thirty-six floors up now, and Ashildr was trailing behind slightly.

“Clara, wait up!” she yelled.

Clara slowed down to allow her to catch up.

“You may have no pulse and not feel the cold, but I do, my heart is beating out of my chest and it is freezing!”

“Sorry,” said Clara as she drew level with Ashildr. “I’d say we were over halfway, not long to go now.”

Clara looked out as the view as she continued to ascend the stairs. She had never been this high above London before, now almost forty floors up. The Shard loomed higher nearby, along with the tower blocks of the city and Canary Wharf in the far distance. It was an ocean of concrete, steel and glass. The grey clouds above gave it the look of noir film.

They kept climbing, Ashildr trying not to look around her. The wind was increasing in speed the further up they climbed, her face was starting to get pins and needles.

They were approaching the crane’s cabin, it hovered over them as they arrived at the top. It was a white room, roughly the size of a van, large windows at the front. 

There was a hatch on the bottom the other side from the driving seat. Clara pushed it up inwards, climbing a small set of solid stairs and hoisted herself inside, feeling pain on her arm as she did. She stepped away from the opening, holding a hand out for Ashildr to help her in. Once Ashildr was safely up, she put down the hatch and looked around the cabin.

“Roomy,” said Ashildr, mockingly.

“I viewed a few flats smaller than this when I first moved to London,” Clara said, laughing.

Clara immediately went to sit down in the mounted plastic seat. In front of her there was the large window, giving an uninterrupted view of the skyline and the floor below. To her right there was a radio handset sat in a base station, the green light on the top flickered intermittently. Next to this there was a mounted computer tablet. Clara touched the screen and it lit up, showing a schedule of work for the day. Clara scrolled through it idly. 

In front of her were the controls for the crane itself. There were three levers, the first on the left controlled rotation, the middle the angle of the top part and the final one controlled the length of the wire. They were marked up with pictures showing the function. Below the controls there was a large red button labelled ‘PUSH TO STOP.’ Next to this there was a key hole, with an on and off marking.

To the left of her seat was a selection of biscuits, chocolate bar wrappers and fizzy drinks in half empty bottles. There were several mobile phone chargers plugged into a socket underneath the chair next to two small scaffolding poles. Above the seat was another hatch leading out, there were three lengths of rope attached to some climbing hooks and some harnesses, ready to be used. A small light was on the ceiling, turned off.

The rear of the cabin was empty, with a fire escape plan put onto the wall. There was another whiteboard with a few meaningless messages scribbled across it. Through a half door at the back there was a small room, inside on the floor were several small drinks bottles with a yellow liquid in there. It had the smell of a men’s toilet, and was deeply unpleasant. There was a glazed door leading out, seemingly to nothing. Ashildr tried the handle, it was locked. She returned back, screwing up her nose.

“You know, I’ve always wanted to do this,” said Clara, her hand hovering over the up/down button. She pressed it quickly, with a glint in her eye. Nothing happened. “Hmm...” she said, looking around. She twisted the red button below the console. Still nothing moved. “Pass me those keys.”

Ashildr fished in the jacket pocket and handed them over. Clara looked at the keyhole, and then at the set of keys, selecting three suitable candidates. The first one did not fit in the lock, but the second one did, and turned on the console. The cabin sprung to life, lighting up, and turning on various red and green flashing lights around her. This time when she pressed the button a large noise and a juddering vibration engulfed the cabin.

“Ok, so now we are working,” said Clara. “What do we do now?”

“There must be something up here, we saw a massive power source on the plans.” Ashildr cast her eyes around the room.

“It has to be above us, I haven’t seen anything that screams, ‘I’m a big power supply’ yet, have you?” 

“No. Maybe it’s on the arm of the crane?” Ashildr pointed out.

“Good idea,” said Clara.

She pressed the middle lever on the console down, and the juddering recommenced.

Ashildr made the mistake of looking down through the window on the floor. She noticed a swarm of people in black below marching towards the base of the crane. “Clara...” she said urgently. “We’ve got company.”


	18. Chapter 18

The juddering continued as the arm of the crane lowered slowly. After two minutes the arm had moved as far as it could. Clara looked at the arm, covered in lots of tiny red and blue lights and a large amount of wires inside it, invisible on a quick glance but overwhelmingly obvious once she noticed. There was a large square black block towards the end of the arm, near the ridge for the crane wire.

“I think we’ve found that power source, have a look at this,” Clara said, pointing out.

“Wow, that is a lot of wiring, it looks almost like a bomb,” said Ashildr.

Clara turned the key to turn off the power, the lights on the arm stayed on, blinking at her. There was a sound of footsteps below them. She took the keys out and put them in her pocket.

“We need to go out,” said Clara, “and find a way to turn this thing off.” She pointed outside.

Clara opened the hatch on the ceiling, letting in a gush of cold air. Standing on the chair on tiptoes she poked her head out, seeing a guide rail to attach the climbing rope on to.

She quickly picked up one of the harnesses, untangling it and wrapping it around her, she couldn’t afford to fall off the crane, she would die instantly. Clara hooked the harness on a loop attached to the rope and jumped up, sitting on the top of the cabin’s ceiling. Once she was hooked onto the external rail she stood up, nervously looking around her. The platform was about six foot wide, covered in a large open metal mesh. Clara peered down, “good job I didn’t wear my high heels today.”

There was a rattle from the hatch on the floor which made Ashildr jump, it began to lift up, she stood on it to give Clara a few more seconds to steady herself outside. Ashildr stood firm as the floor rattled heavily under her feet.

Clara took a few tentative steps out on to the crane arm and heard the commotion below. She saw four soldiers trooping up the stairs, stopping once the first in line reached the cabin. A woman wearing a black coat was a few flights below, motionless.

Ashildr felt the hatch become still below her. There was a static crackle on the other side of the cabin.

“I know you can hear me,” crackled the radio. “Or rather, I know you can hear me, Me. God that name is awkward.” It was Bonnie.

Ashildr looked over at the radio handset, working out of she had enough time to reach it without leaving the hatch covered.

“You are surrounded, both of you. You cannot run.”

Clara looked down and saw the woman more clearly, it was her, more specifically Bonnie.

“I can see her out there, Ashildr, how far does she think she is going to get before she gets...”

Ashildr saw a flash of light outside the cabin.

Clara saw Bonnie pointing to her and then saw a bolt of lightning coming from her hand in her direction, she dived out of the way.

“... shot.”

Ashildr looked out of the window, but Clara was out of her eye line. She decided to snatch the radio handset quickly and returned back to her position.

“I will kill her right now, you will let me in.”

Clara had thrown herself about four feet to her left to avoid the shot. She got up, pulling the rope and the hook towards her. She was almost at the part of the arm where the lights and wiring started. Without looking back or down she quickened her pace.

Ashildr was pondering her answer to Bonnie’s request.

“I will do it again. Let me in,” barked Bonnie.

Ashildr heard a knock under her feet which made her jump slightly. She looked down at the radio, presuming the largest button on the side would be what she needed to use to talk.

“Hello?” she said into the handset, pressing the button.

“Well, hello Me! You are listening, good.”

“Don’t hurt her Bonnie,” Ashildr said sternly.

“Why?” Bonnie sneered.

“You don’t need her, it’s me you need to complete your evil plan.”

“Correct,” said Bonnie.

“So leave her alone.” 

“I can’t do that,” there was another flash of light outside.

Clara saw the lightning bolt flash past her right eye, and she froze. It missed her by about a foot. She snapped back her head to see Bonnie still pointing towards her. She was halfway to the black box at the end of the arm. Clara turned back and continued walking outwards.

“Stop!” said Ashildr. She sighed, putting the radio on the floor, moving off the hatch and opening it to see two soldiers waiting below. 

Bonnie walked up the stairs, and the soldiers moved aside for her. She pulled herself up, Ashildr didn’t attempt to help her. Bonnie got up, dusted herself down and then kicked the hatch shut with her boot loudly.

“So now you will come with me.”

“No,” said Ashildr shortly.

Bonnie looked away, out of the window and then put her right forearm up to Ashildr’s chin and forced her against the wall, holding her so high her feet were just on tiptoes. With her left arm she held a small gun up to Ashildr’s right temple.

“Do you know what this does?” sneered Bonnie, her eyes inches from Ashildr.

Ashildr shook her head. Bonnie was much stronger than her.

“The strongest tranquiliser in the universe. I shoot you, you fall into a deep and peaceful sleep, and then you are mine, do you understand me?” she said, matter-of-factly. “We can do this the easy way,” she lilted her head towards the gun, “or the hard way.”

“Ok, ok, yes, I’ll come with you, just leave Clara alone.” Bonnie still held her throat up.

The radio crackled to life on the floor beneath them, causing them both to turn to look at it. Bonnie maintained her grip.

“Oh, is this thing on,” there were several thudding taps, “I hope it is and you can you hear me.” It was Clara. “The Doctor played his guitar through the radio in the diner so I thought this would be easy enough.”

Bonnie continued to hold Ashildr.

“I can see you Bonnie, hello, yes it’s Clara, put Me down.”

“I will very gladly put you down,” Bonnie said, smiling. 

“No, no, I mean Me, umm, Ashildr. Put Ashildr down.”

Bonnie stayed still.

“Bonnie, I’m outside, looking at the control box for this crane, I know this is how you are doing it,” said Clara.

“You’re fragile Clara, I could kill you right now.”

“Come on out then, show me what you can do. Give me the gun,” Clara said.

“Do you think it’s that easy?” said Bonnie, she released her hold slightly.

“Come out here, come and stop me otherwise goodbye cranes and the stupid telepathic psychic whatever the hell it is controlling all the people and the paper.” Clara imitated Bonnie as best she could, “I will stop you.”

Bonnie looked outside, clearly rattled. She let go and Ashildr fell to the ground, rubbing her neck, a dark purple bruising covering it. Bonnie went to go towards the upper hatch.

“Give me the gun,” Clara said.

“I was bringing it to you. To shoot you.”

“No, give it to Me, Ashildr. Seriously, Me, do you see how confusing this is now!” Clara said, annoyed.

Bonnie threw the gun on the floor, Ashildr picked it up. She opened the hatch above, climbed out of the cabin and begun walking towards Clara against the wind.


	19. Chapter 19

Clara saw Bonnie appear on the top of the cabin, too far away to hear her, even if she shouted.

“Can you hear me, Me?” said Clara.

“Yes,” said Ashildr, her throat croaking slightly. It was almost healed, the bruises were dissipating.

“I think I can disable this thing but I need you to buy me some time. How do you fancy playing Viking for a little bit?”

“How?”

“Just get me a bit of time.”

Ashildr looked around her, took off the bulky jacket and threw it on the floor. She collected up the gun, put it down the back of her jeans in the waistband. She picked up one of the scaffolding poles and flipped it end to end in her hand, she smiled and looked up at the hatch.

“And, by the way, call her ‘Zygella’, she loves that,” Clara said.

Clara stepped up to the small black box at the end of the crane’s arm and began to examine it.

“Turn to face me Clara!” shouted Bonnie, Clara heard it on the wind faintly but carried on with her work. The box was a three foot cube, with a mechanical looking footprint on the side in grey spraypaint. There was a crystalline padlock holding the top surface in place. She used the sonic sunglasses to see if she could open it. The wind was blowing wildly. There were a few light spots of rain in the air.

“Deadlock sealed,” she said impatiently. “Need a key.” She felt in her pocket for the keys, pulling them out to examine them. She wrapped the main key ring around her left index finger to stop them falling off in the wind.

Ashildr had made her way out to the crane arm, ten metres or so behind Bonnie now.

“Bonnie!” Ashildr shouted, holding the scaffolding pole like a baseball bat.

Bonnie turned around to face Ashildr, a smirk on her face.

“Or should I say,” Ashildr wielded the scaffolding pole with a smile, “Zygella!”

“Do not call me that,” Bonnie boomed, now walking back towards Ashildr.

Clara examined the keys, finding one similar to the material of the padlock in the middle of them. She took it carefully in both her hands and inserted the square key into the bottom of the padlock. It opened by cracking in half she retrieved the key and put the set back into her pocket, zipping the outside up. As she looked at the padlock, a few raindrops dripped on it. It was almost see-through. A sudden gust of wind caught Clara off guard, sending the padlock out of her hand and down to the building below. She tracked it with her eyes, until it disappeared from her view.

Ashildr walked slowly towards Bonnie, twisting her grip on the bar. Bonnie moved towards her, a demented grin on her face, her eyebrows scrunched up. It was beginning to rain. There was a grey sky above, the only illumination coming from the far horizon and the flickering blue and red lights on the platform below them.

“Try Ashildr. Just try. You will lose,” shouted Bonnie.

Ashildr tightened her grip on the bar, edging close to her. She swung the bar half-heartedly, knowing she was too far away. Bonnie stood still, her clothes and hair beginning to dampen from the rain.

“You need to do better than that,” Bonnie yelled against the wind.

Ashildr swung the pole again, this time much closer to Bonnie’s face. She remained silent, still creeping forward. Bonnie didn’t move. Ashildr swiped for her again, almost catching Bonnie’s chest as she took a step backwards.

Bonnie laughed at her, smiling with wide eyes. Ashildr swung the pole again, this time Bonnie caught the end with both hands in front of her and pushed it back towards Ashildr’s stomach, making contact. They both tugged either end of the pole wrestling for its control. Bonnie ended up stronger, as Ashildr lost her grip in the rain.

Clara opened the top of the box, finding it full of wires and blue and red lights. She used the sonic sunglasses to look inside. They took a three dimensional picture of the insides, highlighting various wires and a main control box in the front panel. Clara lowered the front panel to the platform and knelt down onto it, putting her eyes level with a black control panel with a screen and two large buttons, one was blue and one was light grey. There was no writing on either of them. She looked at the screen with the sunglasses and it turned on. It flashed with random letters, and then settled on one phrase, ‘To Arm, Please Press The Button.’

“Which button?” said Clara out loud. She hovered her finger over the blue button on the left and then the grey one on the right. She desperately looked around the box, there was no writing, no operating manual, just a choice of two buttons.

Ashildr found herself looking at Bonnie with the construction pole. Bonnie ran towards her holding the pole aloft, when she swung it down Ashildr ducked left out of the way and it hit the crane platform with a resounding clunk. Ashildr held onto the pole and pulled it towards her, causing Bonnie to fall face first onto the metal grating. Ashildr stood up and taking the pole, swung it down at her head, missing and hitting the platform, inches from Bonnie’s right eye. Bonnie turned her head to look at it. She turned onto her back and kicked both her legs into Ashildr’s shins causing her to fall flat on her back. Bonnie stood up and put her right foot onto Ashildr’s chest.

“Really Me? You will not win,” laughed Bonnie. She stomped hard down into her chest, breaking at least three ribs, making Ashildr gasp for breath heavily. Ashildr made her right hand into a fist and brought it down hard on Bonnie left foot, causing her to lose balance. Bonnie fell away from her towards the edge of the platform, her arms dangling over it. Ashildr stood up, giving it a few seconds for her ribs to recover and catch her breath. There was a loud crack as her chest healed, she straightened her back and went back to Bonnie.

Clara had no choice but to press a button, she picked the light grey one. “Fifty fifty chance.” She closed her eyes and winced as she pressed the button, nothing happened. Her hair and clothes were dripping wet in the rain. The screen now displayed a countdown and the words, ‘Network armed.’

“Oh no, no, no, countdown is not good,” she shook her head, “Network? What network?” It showed her a five minute countdown. She pressed the grey button again, nothing happened. She pressed the blue button and still nothing happened. It was asking her for a four digit code in order to disarm. She looked at Ashildr wrestling with Bonnie through the driving rain further along the crane arm. She noticed the red light on top of the crane was now pulsating white and green. In the distance she could see another three identical lights, and looking all around she could see similar lights in all directions. The nearest crane had the same light on top, and was beginning to lower down slowly into the same position as this crane. There were at least twenty cranes doing the same thing around her.

“No no... no no no!” said Clara quickly, realising what was happening. She pushed back the wet hair from her face.

Bonnie was half off the platform, Ashildr stood over her with a foot on her back, preparing to throw her legs off.

“Stop!!” screamed Clara, walking towards them

Ashildr looked at her, which gave Bonnie enough time to recover and get to her feet. She picked up the pole and swung it at Ashildr sideways, Ashildr crouched down out of the way. The pole slipped out of Bonnie’s hand due to the rain, and it spun off into the distance. Ashildr stood up and aimed a punched square at Bonnie’s face with her right hand. Bonnie grabbed hold of her wrist and twisted it down and behind her back, leaving Ashildr facing Clara.

“Stop!!” said Clara, staying a few paces away.

“Why?” shouted Ashildr, trying to wrestle herself from Bonnie’s grip.

“Not really time to explain, but,” she prepared her words and said them quickly, “I think I’ve somehow managed to set every construction crane in London to blow up in about four minutes.” Clara looked away sheepishly.

“What?! How on earth did you do that?” Ashildr shouted angrily.

“I think I pressed the wrong button,” Clara said quietly.

“Well, it seems I’m no longer needed here,” said Bonnie, releasing Ashildr and walking quickly off towards the cabin.

“Wait,” said Clara to Ashildr, turning around to follow Bonnie. “There’s a code to turn it off, she knows it.”

“Oh no you don’t! Come back here!” Ashildr boomed as went after Bonnie and pulled her back roughly, throwing her to the ground face down. “What’s the code?” shouted Ashildr, her right knee on Bonnie’s back, pressing her into the ground.

Bonnie remained silent, saying nothing, struggling as she tried to get up to get off the crane.

Ashildr pinned her down, pulling her hair back, repeating the question, “What is the code?”

Bonnie didn’t answer. Ashildr wrestled Bonnie face up, held on to both her ankles and swung her off the platform, letting her body drop down. She held Bonnie over the side by her knees, she knelt on her ankles.

“I’m not afraid of dying, the whole of London is going to burn now!”

Clara looked at Ashildr, “I need to get that code Me, I need to go in there again.”

“Do it!” said Ashildr, “I’ll hold on to her.”

“Right then, let’s get the code, save the city, save the people and then disable the cranes,” Clara said with a cheeky smile.

Clara put her hand on her wrist and then threw back her head. Ashildr felt Bonnie go limp under her grip.

“Don’t drop me!” said Clara using Bonnie’s voice. Ashildr remained in position, not willing to be swayed.

“What’s the code Bonnie?” said Clara.

“I’m not telling you, but you know what I can do,” said Bonnie through Clara. She lunged forward at Ashildr trying to grab her neck, but stopped still, inches from contact.

“No Bonnie, you will not hurt her,” Clara turned away and walked towards the countdown panel.

Ashildr, taking a risk as Clara had just tried to attack her, pulled Bonnie back up onto the ledge, she was completely motionless. She couldn’t let her die until Clara had got the code.

“You will not get the code, you are not strong enough,” said Bonnie, Clara was walking back towards her, raising her fist ready to land a punch on Ashildr.

“No!” said Clara.

Clara lunged for Ashildr, landing a strong punch on her right shoulder. Ashildr grabbed hold of her right wrist, and she dropped to her knees, screaming in pain.

“I’m almost there Me, just got to...” Clara said.

Bonnie’s lifeless body unexpectedly shot out a hand to Ashildr’s left ankle, pulling it out from under her off the ground behind her.

“Got it!” said Clara, standing up.

Ashildr had rolled over on the floor and was next to the edge. Clara moved towards Ashildr and landed a heavy kick on her stomach, sending her over the side of the platform. Ashildr managed to hold on with her right hand, almost succumbing to a forty-five floor drop. She threw her body upwards to place her left hand onto the structure of the crane, trying desperately hard not to look down. She pulled herself up and locked her right elbow around the structure, allowing her legs to hang lifelessly.

Clara looked down over the edge and held an arm down to Ashildr, she was too far away to reach her. “Climb up, Me!”

Ashildr hurled herself up, eventually getting her feet onto something solid. Clara extended her hand and managed to grab hold of Ashildr, pulling her right hand up on to the platform.  
“I will kill you!” screamed Bonnie through Clara, digging Clara’s fingernails into Ashildr’s hand, causing her hand to slip from the edge.

Ashildr locked her arms around the structure. She heard a sharp intake of breath above her and a dull thud, she could see Clara had collapsed through the floor of the platform. Ashildr moved herself sideways, trying to find a way to get higher due to the criss-cross of the structure. She found a way up, climbing carefully in the rain, her fingers gripping the mesh of the platform to get up.

Clara was still collapsed on the floor, Ashildr dragged her towards the countdown clock, climbing rope still attached, there were sixty seconds left on the countdown timer.

“Come on Clara, wake up!!” shouted Ashildr, slapping her roughly on the face.

Bonnie had begun to stir twenty metres behind her, she got up and started striding towards them. Shaking her head, Bonnie pointed her finger at them, shooting a plume of sparks towards Clara, catching her on her top left thigh, burning a hole in her trousers about three inches long, burning red blood coming from it.

“Come on Clara, you can do it, really important you wake up now!” she shook Clara’s shoulders, still getting no reaction.

Bonnie shot out another bolt of lightning, it grazed Ashildr’s shoulder, singeing her jacket.

Clara begun to stir, Bonnie walked towards them and there were thirty seconds left on the clock.


	20. Chapter 20

“Quick Clara!! Type in the code!” Ashildr pleaded.

“What code?” Clara slurred, her eyes rolled back.

“The code to disarm the bombs, quick! Twenty seconds left!”

“Oh,” she said sleepily, “that.”

“Do it! Do it now!” Fifteen seconds left.

Clara sat up, and lazily typed a four digit code into the display. It did nothing. Ten seconds left.

“Try it again!” shouted Ashildr. Five seconds left.

Clara typed it in again and a green screen appeared. ‘Network Disarmed.’

“Yes!” shouted Ashildr.

Clara sat against the box as she recovered. Ashildr stood in front of her, resting a hand on the casing of the box.

“Did we do it?” asked Clara, looking up.

Ashildr nodded.

“Yes!” said Clara, now more awake, holding her hand up for a high five. 

Ashildr looked back at her confused.

"Come on, don't leave me hanging," said Clara. "Just saved London and now..." she said heaving herself up. She used the sunglasses to scan the console, they told her to press the blue button to turn off the whole network. Clara pressed the button, took off the sunglasses, stashing them in the pocket and zipped it up. "All the people. I think that deserves a high five." She kept her hand up. "No? No. Ok then." She lowered her hand, disappointed.

It was then that Bonnie came at Ashildr from behind, grabbing her shoulders roughly, trying to put an arm around her neck. Ashildr spun round, sending them both backwards and then over the edge, forty floors down to the ground.

Clara got up and looked over, seeing Ashildr and Bonnie falling away from the crane. Bonnie shot out a spark towards Clara which mistakenly hit the bottom of the black control box, burning it to embers.

“No!” she cried holding out a reaching arm, the climbing rope tensing, holding her securely in place unable to keep watching them. She felt oddly sad seeing Bonnie disappearing as well, like she was seeing herself dying.

She felt a pressure in her front pocket, still looking over the side she unzipped it and took the psychic paper. She opened it and it had the word ‘JUMP!’ inside, confused she looked at the floor, it was beginning to turn a neon red colour, then orange and then bright white. It looked hot, she couldn’t feel it, but could see outbreaks of fire in the background and on the other cranes around. The soles of her shoes were beginning to melt.

She couldn’t go back to the cabin, so following the instructions on the paper, limping from the shot on her leg. Holding the psychic paper between her teeth she unhooked her harness, looked out, put the paper in her hand and took a painful leap into the unknown off the end. 

She fell for a few metres, flailing her arms, feeling her stomach in her mouth. and then the psychic paper unfolded into a large parachute, and Clara found herself floating gently down, a plume of fire in her wake as the wiring burnt off into ash, harmlessly drifting to the ground.

Clara was drifting down, she tried to aim herself away from the building, and towards the area she lived in. There was a large park nearby, so she turned in that direction. The light was beginning to dim in the late afternoon, it was still raining, her grey parachute blending in with the surroundings.

Clara found herself approaching the park, several streets away when she felt a lurch above. One of the straps had broken above her, the parachute was beginning to fade away, and she was about five floors from the ground. The psychic link was beginning to wear out, she floated over a small pond, thankfully this was when the parachute broke completely, soaring down three floors into the water below.

The pond wasn’t that deep, the water did break the fall somewhat, but her legs hurt on the landing. Her head went under the surface and then she reappeared, gasping for air, even though she didn’t need to. She let herself float vertically as the adrenaline wore off. The rain hit the surface of the water around her.

There were now a few people standing under umbrellas with their mouths open around her. She was about thirty metres from the edge. The psychic paper was floating on the surface next to her, she took it in her hand and swam with it to the edge and then pulled herself out with the help of man who had run over to help. She had a severe limp on her left side now. She put the psychic paper in her back pocket.

“Are you alright, love?” said the young man with an Irish accent, putting his hands on her shoulders, looking at her up and down.

“Thank you,” she said quietly to the man who helped. “I’m OK, really.”

“Sure?” he asked.

“I’m sure,” she said, smiling at him. “Bit wet, but I’ll live,” she laughed.

“OK, then, if you say so.” He removed his hands from her shoulders, blushing slightly. He went to say something else but stopped himself.

“I’m OK, YouTube stunt gone wrong!” she shouted at the other bystanders. One of them had their phone out, taking pictures. “Nothing to see here,” she said, dripping wet, now in the pouring rain. They began dispersing, in the way that people in London do when they saw something unusual. The young Irish man glanced longing back towards Clara, shaking his head, smiling. He put up his umbrella and went on his way.

Clara walked out of the nearest black metal gate on to the rain soaked street. She was about a five minute walk from her apartment, she weaved her way through the mid afternoon crowds, people hiding under their umbrellas against the driving rain. Clara looked back towards the crane she had just jumped from. “Wow” she said, laughing to herself.

She reached the bottom floor of her block, searching for her keys, unable to find them, positive she had put them in her pocket earlier. She waited under cover nearby for someone to enter and followed them in. There was no working lift so she walked up to the roof, slowly, leaving drips of water trailing behind her. She reached the top, a path made through the gravel now, shining in the rain.

Clara reached the front door of the TARDIS, there were a few discarded discount vouchers lying limply on the floor, and some offensive graffiti scrawled on the window. The door opened for her without a key, and she saw lots of discarded bar stools, disturbed glassware and a dumped fire extinguisher.

She walked past the mess to the TARDIS console door, it opened automatically with a soft whoosh. She walked in and set the controls to take her back to this morning, Ashildr had told her that she saw Clara waving at her from the building. She set the co-ordinates for the building she’d just parachuted from at 5am that morning.


	21. Chapter 21

When the TARDIS stopped she walked out into the diner. It was pitch black again and the TARDIS was facing outwards towards the city lights. It was perched on the half completed floor at the top of the building, Clara realised she’d seen it earlier when climbing the crane, not recognising it as the front was facing away from her.

She picked up the binoculars on a table near the front, putting them around her neck, taking them with her as she limped out on to the concrete floor. She lied down on her front towards the edge, propping her elbows up to look through the binoculars. 

She could see the diner, it was surrounded in darkness. Dawn had not yet broken so she had time to get into position a few floors down. She remembered Ashildr telling her she held a sign, waving at her with a green spotlight. Clara had to get moving, she had a few items to source to get Ashildr to reach her. She put on the sunglasses to allow her to see in the dark.

She had dried off but was still filthy. Her top was covered in mud and dirt underneath the damp fleece. She climbed down the ladder gently, her leg painful from Bonnie’s shot and from being manhandled down the stairs. She winced at every step down. She went into the portacabin, unlocking the door after finding the correct key from her pocket. Once inside, she took a black permanent marker from the stationery on the desk. She lifted one of the hard hats off from the coat rack in the corner and put it on, along with a fluorescent vest that was there fastening it over her fleece.

She put the marker pen and the keys back into her pocket, and walked gently towards the nearby fire escape, descending the stairs gingerly. She made her way down several floors and then heard voices.

“We are close to getting her, she’s appeared in a building not far from here, ma’am, along with a Miss Clara Oswald,” said a gruff male voice. Clara stood still, trying to listen in.

“Clara Oswald? She’s back in London?” said an unfamiliar English female voice.

“Yes ma’am.”

“Where, soldier?”

“American Diner appeared on a roof nearby, we believe they are both currently in Miss Oswald’s apartment, ma’am.” Clara edged down the stairs trying to get a look at who it was.

“Send in some paper, I want the girl but if we happen to pick Oswald on the way, it would be advantageous. I’ll take her form, I like being her.”

“Yes ma’am, she’s designated to go to the sleeper rooms on 9 when she comes in, ma’am.”

“Copy that, if we get Oswald take her to my pod on 22, I want that body.”

“And the girl, ma’am?”

“Bring her straight to 25, and then we can plug her in.”

“Yes ma’am!” came the emphatic reply.

Clara got a glimpse of the two figures, the soldier trotted away but she saw the back of the female voice. She turned to face Clara and she ducked out of sight slightly, but she recognised the face. It was Osgood.

“Of course”, Clara whispered to herself peering down at the logo on her jacket. “OSG... Osgood!”

Osgood disappeared from view, as Clara climbed down the stairs down to Floor 22. She went in through the chipboard door on the fire escape, walking over to the side of the building that faced the diner, looking for a spotlight and something to write her sign on.

She found a medium size square piece of white plastic lying on the floor near the edge.

She looked out with the binoculars towards the diner. She saw the doors on the roof fly open and both her and Ashildr dragging suitcases out. Ashildr threw down one of the suitcases on the floor roughly. She saw them talking to each other and then move both of the suitcases inside the diner. A few seconds later the lights inside blinked on, although Clara was unable to see inside more than a few feet due to the angle she was looking from above. The diner door closed.

Clara looked around for a spotlight, seeing one at the other end of the floor, she ran slightly, limping towards it. She tried to pull it towards her, finding it planted to the floor. On the base of one of the wheels there was a foot operated brake, which she pressed painfully with her left leg. It released with a small click and then moved freely around. She wheeled the light to the other side, the yellow electric cable only just reaching.

She looked through the binoculars back at the diner. There was a man striding from the roof door to the front of the diner. The door opened and she could see Ashildr and then herself looking through the door, talking to him. A group of people emerged from the roof door, heading in the same direction. They congregated at the entrance, and then the diner door shut. After thirty seconds, all of them walked slowly back towards the roof door until she saw herself run after one of the last ones. She saw herself talk to the tall thin girl, and then get the discount voucher thrown at her face. The girl ran away to catch up with the group of people. She saw herself bend down to pick up the ball of paper and disappear back inside the diner. She found the experience oddly disconcerting, like watching a video of herself taken by a stranger.

Clara looked at the spotlight with the sonic sunglasses, trying to find a setting to turn the light green, but she couldn’t find one. She looked back at the diner, and without using the binoculars could see the two large pairs of paper scissors trying to attack the door. Clara went back on to the building floor looking for something to use. There was a green rubbish bag full of rubble at the rear, she couldn’t move it, or rip it despite how much she tried. There was another one a little further behind which she managed to kick over after a few attempts. Having emptied it she took it back to the spotlight.

Clara looked through the binoculars again, the lights were on in the diner, but nothing moved outside. She took the large piece of plastic, leaning it onto a ledge on the spotlight, and then wrote, ‘COME GET ME’ in as large letters as the panel would support. She finished and then prepared to hold it up before pausing and adding a comma before the word ‘ME’, just for emphasis.

She looked through the binoculars and saw the diner door now open, Ashildr standing still on the roof. Clara turned on the spotlight, opened the rubbish bag and put it comfortably over it, tinting the light. Ashildr went back inside the diner briefly and then emerged out again, holding the same binoculars Clara was using to look at her. Clara repositioned the light slightly, pointing it in Ashildr’s direction, and held up the sign, waving. She stood as close to the edge as she dared, removing the sunglasses onto her belt loop, taking some illumination from the spotlight, she waved for at least a minute, hoping Ashildr had seen her.

When she looked back through the binoculars, the diner door was closed, the lights were off and Clara saw the roof door closing. She left the square piece of plastic on the floor, with the binoculars and walked back to the chipboard doors.

She went out on the fire escape, debating whether to return to the TARDIS or investigate further. She decided to go to investigate where they were holding the people, using the opportunity to get some more answers as to what the Zygons were doing.


	22. Chapter 22

She gently went down the stairs, it was completely light outside now, a clear crisp morning with a blue sky. Her left leg was still stinging from Bonnie’s shot, the movement of stepping down the stairs was aggravating the pain.

It took her longer than she liked to descend the thirteen floors to Floor 9. The fire exit door was propped open with a grey brick. On the landing there was a large black toolbox with a yellow panel on the top. Inside it was, the white dusty walls lit up by a flickering spotlight. The hard hat she was wearing was beginning to weigh down her aching head, so she put it on the floor to her left. She stretched her neck out, rubbing her temples to ease the headache.

She went through the narrow corridor, past a door where a fluorescent jacket was hanging over it. Once inside, she saw this floor was completed, and decided to start searching, knowing she could possibly find herself in one of the rooms. She heard a fizzing, crackling noise coming from the other side of the floor, as if catherine wheel fireworks were spinning around. Her interest suitably piqued, Clara ventured towards the noise.

The door was shut, but there was a strong light filtering from under the door into the darkness of the corridor. Clara pulled the handle down, it opened easily. The noise stopped, the room had fallen silent.

Inside the large rectangular room there were rows and rows of white triple high bunk beds, all connected to a central console by the same sort of wiring she had seen on the arm of the crane. The rear wall was entirely grey tinted glass. Each bed had a figure on it, and they were covered with a white sheet, motionless. There were ten rows of bunks, each row was four beds deep. Clara mentally added up how many people that would be.

“One hundred and twenty people,” Clara let out a low whistle.

The crackling noise started again, coming from the other end of the room, the same direction as a strong flickering light. Clara went closer, slowly to investigate. All of the wires went down into the floor, coming back up into a grey box on the near white wall. There was no sign of any keyhole or any other opening. There were two large glass vats of liquid attached to the box, one blue like antifreeze and the other a milky white. Both vats were dripping slowly at the bottom leading to the wires. She looked at the wires more closely, they had alternating blue and white liquid flowing through it, pumping like blood would through an artery.

“What is this stuff?” she said, tapping her fingernail on the blue vat, the noise resonating through the glass. She scanned it with the sunglasses, they were unable to identify either of the substances. She replaced them into the pocket of her fleece.

Clara walked further towards the fizzing noise, noticing it was beginning to quieten. The last two rows were empty, just white sheets on the bed itself. She looked at the first middle bed towards her left, labelled as 09-06-08-02. She lifted the white sheet past the head. A middle aged black woman wearing her own clothes was lying unconscious, arms by her side, the wire came up from the floor near her neck, secured to the side of the bed. It had two threads, one leading to the body and one leading back to the grey box. Clara followed the wire from the bed to the woman’s right nostril, the fluid pumping into it. The fluid travelled out of her left nostril. Clara instinctively held her nose, rubbing it. There was a heavy white leather strap around her arms and chest, one around each wrist, thigh and ankle. Clara looked at her heavily bruised wrists, beginning to believe Ashildr when she said she hadn’t made them.

She replaced the sheet, going in search of herself. It had been about twenty minutes since she had seen Ashildr leave the roof. She was distracted by the crackling noise to her right, one of the previously empty beds was now glowing with a white neon light. The sheet raised up, a figure now lying underneath it. She heard the restraints snap tightly. She looked as the wires snaked from the floor up to the bed, disappearing under the sheet. The fizzing noise quietened.

She began checking under the sheets, finding children, men and women of all ages, shapes and sizes. She didn’t recognise any of the faces. She finished checking the row, replaced the sheets as she went and moved on to the one before. She eventually found herself in bay 09-06-07-10 on the bottom layer. There was a foot gap between the floor and the bunk.

Kneeling down to look at the bed she gasped when she removed the sheet from her head, not expecting it to be her. She was like all the others, a tube going in to her nose, strapped down, unconscious. A small tear welled up in the corner of her left eye as she looked at herself, comatose and restrained. The tear trickled down her face, she wiped it away with the corner of her damp sleeve.

“I’m sorry,” she said, tearful, holding on to her own right arm.

She noticed something in her left front pocket, she fished it out, taking her flat and TARDIS keys and putting them in her own front left pocket, realising this was why she didn’t have them earlier. She checked the other pocket, finding nothing inside. She tried to release the straps, but the connections were below the bed’s surface. There was another crackling sound, a figure appeared underneath one of the other sheets.

The door which she entered the room suddenly burst open, and she quickly replaced the sheet and moved backwards, still crouched down. She laid on the floor face down, and slid quickly under the bottom bunk of the next row of beds, out of the other side, flipped onto her back and shuffled under the row after.

She was under bay 09-06-09-10, it was printed on the underside of the bed frame about one inch from the tip of her nose. She stopped still, turning her head to look.

Four armed soldiers dressed in black had now entered the room, heading for the first row. They stood two either side of the row, throwing the sheets off the beds as they searched. Eventually they reached Clara’s bunk where the soldier stopped.

“Found her!” he shouted. The other three soldiers stopped and met him, two soldiers on each side of the bunk, they all crouched down.

One of the soldiers spoke into his earpiece. “Ma’am, we have located Oswald, no trace on target. We need her disconnected from the network, location zero niner zero six zero seven one zero.”

“Copy that,” said a female voice on the radio. “Disconnecting now. She may be reactive.”

“Taking her to 22 as per your instructions, ma’am.”

“Understood.”

Clara heard a dull click, and saw three of the soldiers standing back from the bed, after they loosened the strap around her chest and thighs. One of them removed the wire from her nostrils roughly for several seconds and then stood away. Clara saw him holding the wire, the end almost reaching the floor, dripping in blue fluid. He dropped it on the floor. She estimated it was approximately four foot of tubing, meaning at least two foot had been inside each nostril. She felt violently nauseous watching the fluid puddle on the floor.

Clara then saw herself arch her back on the bed, and shake violently for at least five minutes, her wrist and ankle restraints still firmly in place. She had seen children have fits at school before, but nothing like this, it was so violent the entire row of bunks was shaking. It sounded like a jackhammer hitting concrete. She realised Ashildr wasn’t entirely to blame for her legs hurting.

Eventually it slowed down to a stop. She saw the soldiers approach the bunk again, releasing the straps. One of the soldiers picked Clara up, putting her over his shoulder in a fireman’s lift. She was still unconscious, her arms swayed with every step. They disappeared back through the door.


	23. Chapter 23

Clara regained her composure and slid out from under the bed, shaking, in tears. At least she knew where the bruises had come from now, five minutes of shaking whilst restrained would have easily done that. She looked at her wrists, the bruises beginning to turn a deep purple colour now, still painful to touch.

There was another door at the end of the room, she went through it, seeing another identical room with the same amount of completely empty beds and two full vats of the same fluid. She went through the next door at the end and saw a similar sized room.

The third room had six rows of printers churning out reams of paper quietly. The first three printers to her left were pushing out pieces of paper saying ‘THANK YOU’ on one side. The printers to the right were spooling out various pictures, flyers and adverts. All the printers were connected to the same white liquid she’d seen in the previous room. She looked down at herself, realising that liquid was inside her veins. There was a large stack of this paper piled up by the window at the end of the room after the last printer. The piles of paper were disappearing on a conveyor lift down through the floor, presumably to be sent out to capture the next victim. Clara went to pick one of the sheets up, but stopped herself.

She decided to take the door out into the hallway and get back up to Floor 22 to meet Ashildr. As she went through the door she heard the tiniest of beeps, and saw a red light flashing above her head. She saw a red hard hat nearby on the floor, deciding to put it on as she was entering a busy area, there were other builders milling around, she was still wearing the reflective vest. She looked around the floor looking for the construction lift, when she found it there was a large sheet of plastic with a no entry sign standing in front of it.

She found the internal stairs, and made her way up them, painfully slowly. On the next floor, two builders walked past her talking about last night’s football in a Polish accent. She smiled at them and continued up the stairs, trying to disguise her limp.

On Floor 14 she sat down, her left leg in agony. The psychic paper rustled slightly in her back pocket, she pulled it out. On it was a message saying, ‘Where is Clara?’

Clara wasn’t sure what to do, she tried to trace with her finger the number 22, knowing Ashildr had the earlier psychic paper and Clara needed her to rescue herself. She remembered she had the permanent marker in her pocket, taking it out she scribbled the number 22 in large numbers. After she wrote it the numbers disappeared, as if absorbed into the paper. She replaced the wallet into her back pocket and continued climbing the stairs, hearing someone a few floors above her opening a door once she had reached Floor 17.

Clara emerged out limping onto Floor 19 when the staircase finished. There were a crowd of builders fitting a window frame to the left of the open side, another builder in an orange jacket heading towards a nearby ladder.

An alarm sounded above her head, causing Clara to put her hands over her ears. It wailed loudly, disorientating her as she looked for somewhere to hide. She saw a crowd of builders heading towards the fire escape and decided to walk in the opposite direction towards an area that was sealed off with plastic sheeting. She took off the hard hat, unzipping the fleece to remove it, and the fluorescent vest, throwing them on the floor towards the wall, hoping to be less conspicuous. As an afterthought, she quickly fished the sunglasses out of the fleece before looking around and lifting up the sheet to allow her to squeeze through a small gap. Behind it there was a small recess under a fire hose, and she sat down beneath it, hidden from view. She didn’t move.

The alarm became a repetitive bleeping now as there was an announcement through the speakers. “This is OSG – we have an intruder, all personnel report to lower level checkpoints,” boomed the voice. It looped continuously with the beeps.

She saw some figures moving in front of her, a group of soldiers and smaller figure walking behind them, the alarm still rung in the air.

The smaller figure stooped to pick up Clara’s discarded clothing barely five metres away from her. Clara held her breath.

“We’ve found the discarded jacket and hard hat, she must be close,” said a female voice. It was Bonnie. She sniffed loudly. “Send out a search team, check everywhere, we can’t have her getting to twenty five.”

“Yes, ma’am,” the soldiers said, trooping off. They turned their torches on, sending beams of white lights all around the space.

“And soldiers,” shouted Bonnie, “don’t worry about killing her, just bring her to me.”

“Yes, ma’am!” the soldiers said in unison.

The soldiers were beginning to search the floor, it was only a matter of time before they found her hiding place.

Bonnie had moved to the other side of the lift shaft, out of Clara’s sight. She heard a dull thud in the background. There was a soldier to her right who had finished searching the far corner and was getting close to moving. She heard another dull thud.

“I know you can hear me,” shouted Bonnie, her voice echoing around.

Clara had her eyes on the soldier who was searching near her with the torch.

“I know you are here,” Bonnie said slowly. “We take intruders very seriously here... Great fake name by the way.”

Clara was confused, she hadn’t used a fake name at all to access the building, as far as she was concerned nobody knew she was here. There was another thud in the background.

“There you are,” said Bonnie, the soldier stopped short of aiming the torch beam at Clara, he walked off in the direction Bonnie had gone leaving her an opportunity to run.

Clara ducked out from underneath the sheeting, deciding to run to the internal staircase. She had made it down half a flight when she heard footsteps coming up the stairs below her. She made it down to the next floor and looked for somewhere to hide. Turning right out of the door this level was littered with bright lights and power cables. She found an unlocked chipboard door on the left, went behind it and sat down in the corner, invisible to someone looking through the doorway.

She heard a large group of footsteps walking around outside the door.

“We know where you are,” said Bonnie loudly. Clara heard some scratching sounds travelling through the air conditioning vents. There was a loud snap in the background.

There was another loud sniff.

“Show yourself!” said Bonnie, “I know you are here.” Clara stayed still, hidden behind the door. There was a large bang, the sound of a gunshot, closer this time.

“Getting warmer,” Bonnie said, with another loud sniff.

A third bang, more muffled this time.

“Do you have any idea how much this is costing me? And now I have to clean up your blood as well.”

Clara was momentarily confused, looking at the cut on her leg, hoping she hadn’t dripped blood whilst avoiding the soldiers.

“Soldiers,” shouted Bonnie, “Get the intruder.”

Clara heard some faint clicking in the background, and a series of loud bangs and scraping in the air conditioning vents above her. A storm of automatic gunfire started, making short work of the chipboard door to her left and the bottom of the air conditioning ducts above her. She covered her head, trying to melt into the wall and avoid the bullets. She heard the spent casings rattle onto the floor, the shower of bullets moving away from the room she was in.

Clara felt an immense pain in her left thigh and left upper arm realising that she had caught some bullets as they reflected off the concrete and the metal vent. Her trousers were torn in three places now, and there was the smallest of scrapes on her upper arm. She listened as the gunshots stopped, far away from her now.

“Go and find her!” shouted Bonnie faintly.


	24. Chapter 24

Clara, cradling her arm, decided to wait for a few minutes to be safe before moving. She stood up, almost hopping on her right leg. There was a small patch of spattered blood on the concrete below her, the outline of her body imprinted into it. She gingerly put her leg to the floor, now experiencing blinding pain. She hobbled out of the door and limped to the interior staircase, walking up to the next level, slowly, leaving the occasional drop of blood behind her.

She looked for another staircase, with two floors to climb before she reached Floor 22. A few doors down on the left there was another staircase that began leading upwards. She limped in, almost dragging her left leg behind her.

She reached Floor 22, pushing out the door. Clara thought she heard rhythmic footsteps enter the stairwell as she left. 

Clara looked to her right and saw Ashildr standing there, looking out of the window. She ran as quickly as her injuries allowed towards her, looking back in the direction of the staircase, she saw Ashildr turn round.

“Clara!” said Ashildr. “Oh my god! Are you alright?” Ashildr wrapped her arms around Clara.

“Not bad, considering,” she got out through staggered breaths, hugging Ashildr.

“What happened to you?” asked Ashildr.

“One minute I was in the diner, stuck to that door, and the next I was inside a room tied to a stretcher, didn’t have a clue where I was,” said Clara, putting a hand on Ashildr’s shoulder to hold herself upright. “How did you know where to find me?” she paused. “It’s good to see her,” Clara said, smiling.

“You shone a green light at the diner from this building and waved at me, holding a sign telling me to come,” replied Ashildr.

“Right,” Clara said, feigning confusion. “That wasn’t me,” she lied.

“It was you, I’m sure.”

Clara tried to come up with a suitably vague answer, “I promise you it wasn’t, unless it is future me, then, maybe it was. Doesn’t matter now, we have bigger problems,” she said, pointing towards the stairwell. “Probably should get out of here, I was being chased by at least ten burly men with machine guns and some woman telling me how much damage I was causing to the air conditioning.” She walked in the direction of the fire escape.

“They were after you?” said Ashildr raising her eyebrows, following behind, “I thought they were after me!”

“Oh, so that was you in the vents? They were after me!” said Clara

“Yes! They shot me several times as I tried to get away,” she pointed to the holes in her jeans.

Clara looked down at the clean skin through the holes, “Impressive,” she said, “shame I can’t say the same, I caught a ricochet, it didn’t go in, just a graze,” Clara lied again, she was starting to feel faint from the pain. She limped heavily as she walked.

“You have to help me,” Clara felt an extreme pain in her left side of her stomach.

“I will Clara, come on, let’s find a way out.”

They emerged onto the fire escape, hearing footsteps below them.

“Looks like we’re heading up,” said Clara.

“Yes,” Ashildr nodded, following behind Clara.

They stopped on Floor 24, Clara looked over the balcony, marvelling at the skyline to take her mind off the pain, “What a view!”

“Be careful, I’m not sure you would survive a twenty five floor fall,” said Ashildr behind her.

Clara laughed to herself. “Yes mum,” she said holding her hands up and stepping backwards.

“Hang on,” said Ashildr, “when I was, sorry, you were being chased they said they had to keep you away from floor twenty five. What’s up there?”

“I don’t know,” said Clara, lying again. “Shall we look?”

The footsteps continued up the stairs, getting closer.

“Let’s go,” said Ashildr.

Clara limped slowly up the staircase behind Ashildr, following her onto the building floor. She was beginning to feel drowsy. Ashildr held out her arm to protect her, she saw a black haze appear over her vision.

Ashildr turned around and indicated for Clara to follow her, but she couldn’t move, she collapsed on the floor and rolled against the wall, Ashildr walked out of sight.

She only blacked out for a few seconds, hearing voices in the background. She crawled towards the fire escape, as it was free of people. She was too disorientated to stand, but pressed on regardless. This floor wasn’t an option, Ashildr had told her this was where Bonnie had captured her. She tried to get to her knees and stand, feeling slightly lightheaded and nauseous. She was still walking with a pronounced limp.

She hopped down to the next floor, staggering across the space to be directly below where she had heard the voices.

“It was you! You gave out the vouchers that invaded the diner.” She heard Ashildr said, above her. “So why did you need to take Clara? Why not just me?”

“You didn’t touch any of the items, only she did. If she went I knew you would follow eventually, and you did, although much quicker than I was expecting,” Bonnie said, pausing, “So predictable.” Clara immediately felt better about not touching the paper in the printing room earlier.

“That was you too, of course.”

“What was? Now, listen to me, here’s what we are going to do.”

Clara felt the psychic paper shift in her pocket, she pulled it out.

“You are going to get in this pod, and then I can give life, immortal life to ten million Zygons. I can remain as Clara, I do like being you Clara, excellent body, we have mass panic, followed by a war and then I rule supreme over my new master race.”

“That’s my body,” Clara muttered to herself, looking at the psychic paper. The message written on it said ‘How do I stop Ashildr from falling?’

“You really are evil aren’t you?” Ashildr said.

“Bring her to me.”

Clara saw Ashildr fall horizontally past her.

“No!” shouted Bonnie, poking her head out over the edge. Clara pulled back, in case Bonnie saw her.

“Get her!” Clara heard Bonnie shouting as she fell.

Clara looked at the psychic paper, she had lost her pen in the fleece Bonnie had taken. She felt her pockets, finding her flat keys, there was a metal keychain attached to a black entry fob for the refuse area. She pressed it onto the psychic paper hoping this would be enough to save Ashildr, she had mentioned the chain earlier.

The psychic paper displayed an image of a several interlinking chains, which then faded back to white. She looked down off the ledge to see Ashildr, crushed around the waist, hanging from the crane hook. Clara sighed, rolling back onto the floor, laughing to herself slightly.


	25. Chapter 25

Still sitting down, she scoured the floor for useful items. She saw a large toolbox near the lift shaft, twenty feet away from her. It was next to a bank of moveable power sockets and there was a small white cable connecting the two.

Clara laughed to herself, recognising instantly what it was, a mobile phone cable. She felt a sharp pain on the left side of her stomach which caused her to double over.

She got up and walked over to the toolbox, opening it to find an older iPhone, with several large cracks running down the middle of the screen and a full battery. She pressed the home button, finding it wanted a numeric password. There was an option to make an emergency call, so she pressed the button on the screen. It rang in her ear.

“Hello, emergency, which service?” came the male voice at the other end of the phone.

“Umm,” Clara thought what to do. “I need to speak to UNIT.”

“Fire, police or ambulance only. Which service do you require?”

“Umm, police then.” Clara guessed this would be the most useful.

“This is the Police, what’s the emergency?” said another male operator.

“I need to speak to UNIT, that’s U.N.I.T, the umm, United Intelligence Taskforce people. Yes, them.”

“Who am I speaking to?” said the operator, the voice had a lofty air, as if expecting a prank call.

Clara had spoken to UNIT enough times to know how to get their attention. “My name is Clara Oswald, travelling companion of the... Doctor in his... blue police box called the... TARDIS, there has been an incursion.” She emphasised her words.

The operator paused, she heard typing in the background. “Right, so let me get this straight, you are calling about a Doctor in a blue box. I’m afraid this is not a matter the police can hel-“ there was a loud rustle at the end of the phone, and then a silence.

“This is Kate Lethbridge-Stewart of UNIT, am I speaking to Clara Oswald?”

“Hello Kate, yes it’s me.”

“Good to hear from you Clara, what’s happened?”

“We have a Zygon problem, I’ve already saved the world but I thought you guys would like to, you know, come and swoop in, pick up the bad guys.”

“Where are you?”

“I’m currently on the twenty something floor of the UT Tower building site.” She took a large breath in, “The Zygons have captured past me and over ten million people who are lying dormant in every building in London with a blue crane. The cranes are creating a network which is turning some, not all, paper into monsters who are transmitting the people to the buildings, they are being pumped up with something that looks one hell of a lot like antifreeze liquid, and they are looking to make all of them immortal by capturing someone, well, immortal.” She paused for breath. “Basically, a normal day at the office.”

“Ok, I will send my team in,” said Kate, “are you hurt?”

“A little, not badly.” She lied.

“Where’s the Doctor, is he with you?”

“Umm, no,” Clara said looking down at her free hand. “I died, her brought me back from the dead, and he forgot everything about me. I guess you could say we are, umm, separated.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” said Kate, “you made a good team.”

“We did make a good team, didn’t we?” Clara sighed. “Thing is, I’ve somehow managed to acquire a TARDIS of my own, you could say it’s on loan from the Time Lords until I take it back.”

“You have a TARDIS? What does it look like?”

“I can’t tell you that Kate, don’t want UNIT taking it. I only came back here for a change of clothes, can you believe it? It’s like trouble follows me round or something!”

“You say you have already defeated them?”

“Oh yes, in about 1-2 hours I’m going to disable the network at the top of this crane and then the Zygons are all yours. They have all the people connect to some sort of wiring, when they released me I had some sort of violent fit for about five minutes, so you might have to deal with a few confused people wandering the streets.” Clara paused, “the Zygon leader, Bonnie, she has taken my form, she falls off the top of the crane before it burns, not sure where she ends up. I didn’t see you lot the first time around so I guess you guys turn up once we’ve left.”

“Who is we? Who are you with?” Kate asked.

“Ashildr, a previous Viking who is immortal, she falls off the top of the crane with the Zygon who has copied me.”

“I’m beginning to understand. I’ll send a SWAT team to scope out, we’ll come in once you are out.”

“There’s a map inside the green portacabin on the roof, shows the locations of all the affected building sites. The nerve centre is on the twenty fifth floor.”

“Understood, will I speak to you again?”

“Probably not, not my phone.”

“Until the next time then Clara, I’ll be looking out for your TARDIS.”

“I’m sure you will,” Clara said, almost laughing.

“Bye.” Kate hung up.

Clara replaced the phone in the toolbox. She went to stand up, feeling better for having had a respite. She decided to go up to the next floor and investigate further, going into the interior stairs, supporting her left side on the handrail. She came out of the door, turning left, edging around the main lift shaft wall. As she passed the corner, a soldier came in through from the fire escape, thankfully walking to Bonnie on the other side of the floor, the other way she would have been seen.

Clara continued along the wall until she reached the next corner. She took a quick look around and then put her back onto the wall, thankful neither Bonnie or the soldier were looking in her direction.

“Ma’am, we found these on Floor 22, along with a spotlight covered in a green bag. We believe they were used to signal the target.”

“Do we know who it was?” said Bonnie.

“No ma’am, unclear at present.”

“What is the status on Oswald?”

“Safely inside your pod for the last thirty, ma’am.”

“Excellent work, soldier. I’ll hold on to these. Join the others, we need to find the target.”

“Yes ma’am.” There was a loud footstep, and then the soldier marched back off in the direction he had come.

Clara took another look around, Bonnie was at a bank of computers facing away from her, there was a large red open coffin in the middle of the floor next to it. She was busy inspecting something in her hands. She set it aside, and Clara recognised her binoculars, along with the large set of keys.

Clara wanted the keys, they had been very useful to her. She looked around for a way to distract Bonnie.

“Commander calling tactical team,” said Bonnie.

“Team leader to commander go ahead,” said a soldier over the radio.

“What is the status on the intruder?”

Clara saw a large bank of power sockets in the far corner.

“Ma’am we are completing a ground area search, no sign as of yet, I will keep you updated.”

“Copy that, you will find her and you will bring her to me,” Bonnie sneered.

“Copy that commander.”

Clara aimed the sonic sunglasses at the power bank and it sparked up with a large bang.

“Nice!” whispered Clara, smiling.

“Who’s there? Tell me, now!” she heard Bonnie shout.

Clara went back around the lift shaft, out of Bonnie’s sight to the rear of the computer console. She took the keys as silently as she could, and decided to take the binoculars as well. She then hid back behind the wall. She put the keys quietly into her front right pocket, and slung the binoculars diagonally over her shoulder.

Clara heard Bonnie walking back to the console and made her way back to the interior staircase, opening the door as slowly and quietly as she could. She went in closing the door as carefully as she had opened it.


	26. Chapter 26

Clara walked up, taking the steps one at a time. It felt like it was taking her forever. She stopped when she reached Floor 28. There was lots of rubble and dust on the floor around her, the natural light was beginning to creep down the wall, there was a piece of plastic flapping in the wind several floors above.

The psychic paper shifted again in her back pocket. This time when she opened it, the paper said, ‘Bonnie is about to knock down the door, how do I protect Clara and Ashildr?’

Clara thought back, the psychic paper had created a fake wall to protect them when they were hacking the computer. Looking around her, she swept up a handful of dust and concrete around her and put it on to the paper, it remained blank. She held the paper against the breezeblock wall next to her for several seconds. A brick wall pattern appeared on the paper, and then faded away.

Clara rested for several minutes, and then continued. The staircase finished on Floor 30, where the steps were covered in iron bars all around. Clara went out through the doorway, into the main floor, it was deserted. She heard a metallic clunking start from the other side of the floor, specifically the construction lift. It continued as she painfully walked towards a yellow ladder on her right.

Using all her strength she stepped onto the ladder and ascended, the pain was unlike anything she’d ever felt before. Every step up was a stabbing pain on the left side of her body, her wrists were still aching. 

On the next floor she came off the ladder, collapsing to the ground. The lift was still clunking away, she saw the carriage go up past her with Ashildr and herself in it. The loud noise stopped a few seconds later.

Clara pulled herself to her feet, a determination spreading over her face to climb to the very top floor. Shaking, she pulled herself up on the ladder, when her head drew level with the concrete she took a look backwards, seeing Ashildr and herself walking towards the green portacabin, talking to each other. Clara walked a few paces from the ladder and sat behind a half completed concrete pillar.

She watched herself go up to the door, try the handle and then walk towards the small window on the right hand side. Ashildr tried the handle of the door several times and it opened towards her. They both disappeared into the cabin.

Clara saw them inside through the small dirty window, deciding to take herself a little closer. She stood up, being careful not to leave herself exposed. The wind was strong, there was no protective fabric on the outside of the building. She eventually positioned herself behind next to the grey electric box attached to the cabin, she sat down, hearing heavy footsteps inside.  
She saw herself walk out of the cabin and point at the horizon.

“You see, the Shard, it’s there, and we’re here,” she pointed at the map. “My flat is over there,” she pointed to her left. Clara saw herself looking around, she shuffled out of her field of vision, catching her elbow on the back of the electrical box and knocking over a red safety barrier as she did.

“So...” she heard herself say, “This blue dot here should be...” There was a pause. “I think it’s safe to say it’s definitely something to do with the cranes, isn’t it?”

“I agree, the cranes, definitely,” said Ashildr.

“Fancy a little exercise?”

“Not really,” Ashildr replied, “I’ve spent all day climbing this damn building!”

Clara heard them go back inside the office, now only able to hear muffled voices. She remained sat down waiting for them to leave.

She heard footsteps and turned to see them walking towards the crane door, Ashildr wearing a large fluorescent jacket, herself wearing the black fleece zip up. Clara moved so she was behind the portacabin, out of sight as they begun to climb the stairs.

Clara went around to the front door of the portacabin and sat down in the chair where she herself had sat moments before. There were cellophane wrappings of the bandages left on the desk. The large set of keys sat uncomfortably in her pocket, so she took them out and put them on the desk in front of her, picking up the discarded blue marker, in case she needed the psychic paper again.

She looked out at the crane through the window, they were about halfway up the staircase. Clara wheeled the chair across the room and opened the fridge, seeing several small plastic bottles of water inside. She took one and drank from it quickly, immediately feeling better for doing so.

She rifled through a few more acetates. She saw a safety bulletin for the crane, dated one month previously, stating that a black box and other wiring would be fitted, along with new security lights to improve visibility, it was from the UT company, the UT logo had ‘Urban Trees’ written below it. She figured this must have been what Bonnie meant when she said the trees were controlling the network. She picked up another page, but was distracted before she had time to read it. She heard the sound of running footsteps, looking through the window of the cabin she saw one, then two soldiers emerging up the ladder she had used. Clara left the cabin out of the door, knocking over the water bottle on to the floor and moved back to where she had been earlier, out of sight.

She heard many pairs of footsteps marching towards the portacabin, she was careful not to move. She heard someone go inside the cabin itself. One person followed.

“Ma’am, they’ve been here, now no sign, keys are inside.”

“Find them!” said Bonnie.

There was a juddering noise, a second long, above them.

“Soldiers! They are in the crane, four with me, everyone else stay down here, if the target falls, get her and take her to 25. Understood?” Bonnie shouted. The noise resumed, for longer this time.

“Yes ma’am!” the group said.

“Give me a radio!” Bonnie said. Clara heard footsteps inside the cabin.

The soldiers walked off. Clara saw four of them enter the crane staircase with Bonnie following. Another six soldiers remained on the floor, one guarding the exit of the crane, the others fanning out, looking upwards.

Clara repositioned herself behind the grey electrical box, low enough to not be seen. She took the binoculars off her shoulder and put the strap around her neck, she trained them on the driver’s cabin. The arm of the crane was lowering slowly, the noise stopped as it became horizontal. She could just about see herself sat in the driver’s chair.

As the noise stopped she looked at the soldiers around her, they were still in position. Through the binoculars she saw the soldiers within a few floors of the cabin. She saw the hatch on the top flap open, seeing herself climb out. Clara nodded to herself, impressed at what she was doing.

“Forty floors up, hanging off a crane, look at me go!” she said quietly to herself.

The soldiers reached the bottom of the cabin and she saw them stop. Bonnie began pointing in her direction. She saw herself take a few more paces, and then saw a bolt of electricity spark towards her from below. Clara watched as she threw herself to the ground to avoid it and then get up to continue walking, quicker this time.

Another flash went right past her, halting her advance. Bonnie walked past the soldiers and up into the driver’s cabin. 

The binoculars went black. Clara took them away from her eyes to see a soldier standing the other side of the electrical box, three feet from her. He was facing towards the crane, gun trained on the arm.


	27. Chapter 27

She lifted up the binoculars and moved them gently off the top of the box, and crouched down. She crept silently back towards the portacabin, and then taking a risk she walked softly towards the covered part of the floor, hoping to find more places to hide away from the soldiers.

She wasn’t seen, the soldiers had their eyes trained upwards, so she decided to climb up to the unfinished floor where the TARDIS was, the ladder was surrounded in darkness. It was an effort, but she limped carefully to the edge of the diner, invisible from the floor below and retrained her binoculars, she was looking at the scene side on now.

She was at the end of the crane, almost at the black box, Bonnie was walking quickly towards her, no sign of Ashildr so far. Clara wondered why she wasn’t moving.

She took out the sonic sunglasses and matched the same radio frequency as earlier, and spoke.

“Can you hear me, Me?” said Clara, adjusting the sunglasses to tune into the radio of the crane.

“Yes,” came the reply.

“I think I can disable this thing but I need you to buy me some time. How do you fancy playing Viking for a little bit?” Clara said with a smile on her face.

“How?”

“Just get me a bit of time.” Clara paused. “And, by the way, call her ‘Zygella’, she loves that,” she smirked.

Ashildr had now walked out onto the crane, following Bonnie. Clara was examining the black box on the edge.

Clara put down the binoculars for a moment, thinking how she was going to get Ashildr once she fell from the crane, she didn’t have much time to waste. As she stood up, she noticed one of the soldiers near the edge fall to the ground unexpectedly. A couple of soldiers came to his aid, helping him up, one of them grabbing something small on the floor and examining it with a torch. It was the padlock.

She went into the TARDIS, opened the door to the diner and hurried into the console room. She used the sunglasses on the television screen in the corner and set it to watch Ashildr on top of the crane. She weighed up different plans in her head. She looked at the screen and saw Ashildr and Bonnie wrestling with the metal scaffolding pole.

Clara looked for the invisibility controls, finding it after a couple of laps of the console. She flipped the switch, noticing no difference inside. There was a loud thud on the roof of the diner, the video feed momentarily had interference.

She looked at the screen, seeing herself walking towards Bonnie and Ashildr. Clara prepared to move the TARDIS, knowing she had about four minutes to get into position. She then saw Bonnie hang down, Ashildr holding her ankles.

Clara aimed the TARDIS map to the approximate location of where they would have fallen, feeling it shudder as she flipped the switch. She looked at the screen to see Ashildr clinging onto the side, legs hanging down.

She went out into the diner, checking she was in the right place. She opened the front door and looked up, she was approximately level with the top floor of the building, directly underneath where the crane overhung. She was about thirty feet from the edge of the concrete, floating in the air.

Clara saw Ashildr climbing up the outside of the crane, and then dragging her unconscious body to the end of the crane. Bonnie shot out another bolt of lightning at her, catching her leg, she looked down on her thigh, seeing the impact mark. Clara went into the console room, preparing to make any adjustments quickly.

Watching on the screen, Clara saw Bonnie grab hold of Ashildr from behind, and then they both fell off the crane. She moved the TARDIS slightly and then there was a large thumping noise overhead.

Upon hearing the impact Clara flew the TARDIS straight up in the sky, in case any of the soldiers became curious. When she was a mile up, past the rainclouds, she turned off the invisibility and walked out into the diner. Clara opened the front door and shouted out, “Are you there, Me?”

There were several small bangs on the ceiling which caused the light fittings to move from the back of the diner to the front. Two shoes appeared at the top of the door, and then turned around feet pointing towards Clara. She stepped away as the legs swung inwards. Ashildr threw herself onto the floor of the diner, feet first and face up, landing four feet from the door. Clara rushed to help her up, noticing one of her legs was hanging limply on the floor. 

“How have I just fallen onto the TARDIS?” said Ashildr, confused, out of breath. Her leg straightened with a loud snap. “Aren’t you on top of the crane.”

“Oh, um, yes, so I am.” She got up suddenly and went to the nearest table, remembering. She took the psychic paper out of her back pocket onto the surface, she took the blue marker and wrote the word ‘JUMP!’ and drew a stick man with a parachute, hoping this would be enough. She rushed to the door and looked down, seeing herself attached to a parachute through the clouds and breathed a sigh of relief.

“What’s going on?” said Ashildr, coming to join her at the door.

“Sorry, just saving myself, I parachuted off the top of the crane, you know, as you do.”

“Wow, impressive.” Ashildr stood away from the door.

“Turns out the psychic paper was taking things I wrote and making them real.” Clara stood up, grimacing.

“Are you hurt?” Ashildr sat in one of the booths facing the front door, Clara sat opposite her.

“Well, we know about my arm, I found out how I got the bruises on my wrists –“

“How?” said Ashildr, interrupting, curious as to the answer.

“They tied me down, fed a tube up my nose, pumped me full of some blue and white antifreeze, when they removed it I had some sort of fit or seizure when they took it out, it was horrible to watch,” she said, distracted.

“Anything else?”

“Bonnie caught me with one of her death rays on my leg, and then three bullets caught me here, here and here,” she pointed to her arm and her thigh. “And whatever you did to me pulling me down those stairs. How about you?”

“So I broke my leg and shoulder before we even left, and my face got cut, I was shot about ten times, had my chest crushed by a large chain, was almost strangled by your so called evil twin, and as I fell onto the TARDIS I broke my neck, back and hip, and broke my leg getting in here.” Ashildr said with a grin.

“Ok Ok, you win! But you’re absolutely fine.”

“And you’re not, we need to get you to a hospital.”

“I think I passed out a couple of times too. And I’m limping, apparently I walk with a limp now, thank you Bonnie!”

“You’re welcome,” said a voice behind Clara.


	28. Chapter 28

Clara turned around to see Bonnie standing at the front door. Ashildr looked around Clara to check.

“How the hell did you get here?” said Clara, getting up to look and pace backwards.

“I held on to the outside of this,” she looked around, “restaurant.”

Clara looked at Bonnie, dusty, her jacket ripped at the seams on the right shoulder, hair messed up. Her right shoulder was dislocated, leaving her arm hanging limp.

“You will not get away,” said Bonnie.

“It’s over Bonnie, the network’s down, the bombs on the cranes have burnt away and all the people have been freed.”

“Have they?” replied Bonnie.

“I’ve just shut it down.”

“What’s the liquid Clara, did you work that out?”

“What liquid?” said Clara, confused.

“The liquid in the tubes, I know you saw it.”

“What the white and blue stuff?”

“Correct, what is it for?”

“I don’t know,” said Clara, confused. “It looked like antifreeze.”

“Antifreeze? What is that?” asked Ashildr as an aside, not taking her eyes off Bonnie.

“It melts ice on a car window screen on a cold day,” she said to Ashildr, who acknowledged her with a nod. “If it was antifreeze then all those people would be dead, wouldn’t they?” Clara said to Bonnie, looking at her with frowned eyebrows.

“Correct. You are right, it is a freezing liquid.”

“I’m full of antifreeze? There are ten million people full of antifreeze?!” said Clara, incredulous.

“Correct, do you think they are just going to wake up? I thought you were clever,” Bonnie said with a smile.

“Ok, so what’s the white one?”

“Do you give up?”

“I give up,” said Clara.

“It’s full of telepathic nanobots, waiting for the immortal spark of life from her,” she pointed at Ashildr.

“And if they don’t get it?”

“Chemistry,” replied Bonnie.

“Chemistry, how?”

“They will all be slaughtered. It induces a violent convulsion and then the nanobots dissolve the body, it is the ultimate safeguard. If I do not make them immortal Zygons, they die.” Bonnie was said with a blank look.

“You can’t do this, it’s ten million people. That’s genocide.” Clara’s face dropped.

“You did this Clara.”

“I most certainly did not, I saved them!” Clara pleaded, tears forming in the corner of her eyes.

“They will all die. And that’s on your head.”

“No! No it’s not! I will stop you,” Clara shouted.

“Your decision Clara, kill them all or make them immortal.”

Clara paused, deep in thought. She needed to find a way to turn off the nanobots, she wasn’t dead so there had to be a way to release the people. She turned around, giving herself time to think, walking slowly towards the counter of the diner, there were tears welling up. She walked behind the counter and set a small glass down. Clara had an idea, she searched for something, rummaging around. She emerged after thirty seconds holding the glass with an inch of a light brown liquid and some ice cubes, which she set on the table where they had been sitting. She sat down at the table, her arm out.

“Join me Ashildr, I need a drink before I decide which of two ways I’m going to kill ten million people,” Clara had a steely determination in her eyes.

“Clara... What are you –“

“Me, I’ve enjoyed our adventure, would you like to shake my hand?” Clara held out her right hand towards her.

Ashildr shook her hand, looking momentarily confused, and then raising her eyebrow at her. “Thanks.”

“Right then,” Clara said, drinking the liquid in one, “let’s do this.” Ashildr looked down, wondering what Clara was doing.

Clara got up and walked towards Bonnie, looking her in the eye.

“I have a question. Just one question.”

“Go ahead, it will not change a thing,” said Bonnie.

“Why...” Clara paused.

“Because I can,” Bonnie answered.

“I didn’t finish my question,” Clara said slowly.

“Go on then,” Bonnie said, impatiently.

“Why... am I not dead?” Clara said.

Bonnie looked at her. “Why haven’t you died?”

“If I’ve got this fluid in me, why am I not dead?”

Bonnie thought about her answer. “You obviously didn’t have it in your system for long enough.”

“Oh, I had it in my system long enough, I saw it going into my nose, in a tube three feet long, I saw myself convulsing off a bed for over five minutes, so, I ask again, why am I not dead?” Clara said, an unforgiving look in her eyes.

“I-I- don’t know.”

“You see, I’m different Bonnie, you may have latched on to me because you, and I quote, ‘like my body’, yes I heard you saying that, but it is my body, and you should have noticed something fundamentally wrong with me.”

“And what is that?” said Bonnie, losing patience.

“Feel for my pulse, go on.”

Bonnie took her hand to her wrist, changing the position several times.

“Funny that, it would look like I do not have a pulse,” said Clara.

“How... How is that possible?” asked Bonnie, confused.

“Do you want the short version or the long version? I’ve got all the time in the world,” said Clara.

“Short version,” said Bonnie through gritted teeth.

“I’m stuck between heartbeats, rescued a second before my death,” said Clara, pacing, “I’ve been given a whole new second chance to live and I sure as hell am not losing it.”

“So what are you?”

“I don’t quite know, but the one thing I can say with one hundred percent certainty is,” Clara paused for breath, “you’re lying.”

Bonnie narrowed her eyes at her.

“Give it up, Bonnie. You are not a killer.”

“Do not underestimate me.”

“You’re done! All your Zygon mates downstairs are being captured, have a look.”

Clara walked to the edge, inviting Bonnie to look down. Bonnie joined her and looked towards the building through the cloud cover, seeing helicopters and police swarming over the top of the building. She grimaced and looked away.

“It’s over, give yourself up,” said Clara, sighing.

Bonnie tucked her dislocated arm into one of the spaces between the buttons on her trench coat. She then took a breath and looked up towards the ceiling, lunging quickly with her left arm out, pushing Clara up against the wall to the left of the counter.


	29. Chapter 29

“You’re weak Clara,” Bonnie sneered holding her neck firmly in her left hand. “Will you survive if I strangle you? Why don’t we find out?” Clara’s feet were an inch off the ground.

Clara looked down at Bonnie, slightly shorter than her, a defiant look on her face.

“Put her down,” said Ashildr, aiming Bonnie’s gun directly at her head. She walked slowly towards her until the gun was planted on her right temple. “Most powerful tranquiliser in the universe, remember?”

Bonnie still held Clara’s neck, there was a red colour appearing around her grip. Clara’s eyes rolled backwards.

“I won’t ask you again Bonnie,” said Ashildr, rotating the gun sideways. “If this is the tranquiliser you’re using to knock out someone immortal, I’d love to see what it does to you.”

Bonnie stayed still, tightening her grip, fingernails beginning to dig in. “Not a killer am I?” she said to Clara, “I could kill you now with a single thought.”

“Last warning,” said Ashildr. “Let... her... go.”

Bonnie turned her head, still throttling Clara, looked at her smiling. Ashildr heard a crack as Clara’s windpipe collapsed.

Ashildr looked back, repositioning the gun in between her eyes and pulled the trigger. It clicked but nothing happened. Ashildr tried it twice more, only emitting a sharp click. She took it in her hands and looked at it. Bonnie laughed at her.

“Oh dear, sorry, did I tell you it has biometric controls?”

Bonnie turned back to Clara, a purple mottling now covering her entire neck. Clara tried to speak, but no words came out.

“I guess I’m going to have to do this the hard way then,” said Ashildr, picking up one of the heavy glasses on top of the counter, hitting Bonnie over the head with it as hard as she could, causing her neck to crack and push her to the floor. Clara collapsed in a heap against the wall, hands clutching her neck.

Ashildr dropped the gun and kicked it behind her, it scattered with a scraping sound.

Bonnie stood up and straightened her neck, snarling at Ashildr. The impact had set her right shoulder back into place, she rotated and clenched her fist, getting the feeling back.  
They eyed each other pacing in a circle, waiting for someone to make the first move.

Ashildr launched at Bonnie, knocking her to the ground, she aimed a punch at her head which landed square on the floor as Bonnie dodged out of the way.

Bonnie lifted both of her legs up to push Ashildr off her, throwing her backwards in the air towards the upended bar stools. She stood up and strode over to Ashildr, stamping on her stomach roughly, winding her.

Ashildr picked up a nearby bar stool and threw it up towards Bonnie, knocking her off balance towards the booth tables. She walked to Bonnie and picked her up by her injured arm and pulled it roughly towards her. Bonnie grimaced in pain. Ashildr twisted her arm behind her and shoved her towards the open door. Bonnie held on to the door frame as Ashildr positioned her over the edge. There were grey clouds beneath them now.

“I will do it,” snarled Ashildr, “I bet you come off worse than me, we’re over a mile up.”

Saying nothing, Bonnie crouched down and threw Ashildr over the top of her out of the open door. Bonnie held onto the floor with her good arm, Ashildr clung onto her right wrist out into the drop below.

Ashildr lost her grip on Bonnie’s wrist, but grabbed onto her left leg with her other arm. She slipped down to hang on to her left ankle above her boot with both hands. Bonnie kicked her other leg towards Ashildr, catching her right arm and forcing it away. Bonnie kicked her left leg, Ashildr lost her grip and had nothing else to grab on to. Bonnie looked down to see Ashildr fall into the grey cloud below.

Bonnie slowly got her right arm inside the diner door and edged her way inside. She pulled herself up against the floor, collapsing exhausted once she swung her legs up.

Bonnie got to her feet by using a nearby bar stool to help her up. She looked down and out of the door, towards the clouds, wondering what to do. She dusted off her jacket, smoothing it down.

She looked around the diner, and walked towards the rear, passing Clara on the way. 

Clara was slumped in front of the counter, head between her legs, motionless. Bonnie kneeled down to look at her, pulling her head up by her hair roughly to look in her eyes. Clara’s head lolled back.

“Well, I hope you believe me now,” said Bonnie. “This... restaurant is my ticket out of here.” Bonnie got up, leaving Clara collapsed. “How does it work, this thing?” she said at Clara. “How does it fly?” 

Clara did not respond, she fell down sideways onto the floor.

Bonnie walked towards the rear door and it opened automatically, leading Bonnie into a set of toilet stalls. Bonnie went inside both toilets and found nothing. She went into the kitchen, looking in cupboards, scattering utensils and banging heavily on the walls.

“How does it work?” Bonnie shouted, louder this time, emerging back into the seated area.

Bonnie pulled Clara upright, pinning her against the counter. Clara opened her eyes slightly, her mouth hung open.

“Tell me now!”

Clara mouthed something that came out as a hoarse whisper due to her crushed windpipe.

“Speak up, tell me!”

Clara coughed and pointed towards the rear door.

“There is nothing back there apart from toilets, how does it fly?” Bonnie demanded.

Clara whispered something quietly, Bonnie dropped her down and walked towards the front door.

“Looking for this?” Clara said, on the floor, non-vocalised, directly behind her.

Bonnie spun around to look at Clara. As she did, Clara shot her in the stomach with the tranquiliser gun. It shot out a small dart which stuck into her coat.

“No!!” Bonnie cried. She walked back towards Clara, but after one pace lurched forward to the floor, flat onto her face.


	30. Chapter 30

Clara staggered towards the rear door of the TARDIS, hands clutching her neck, feeling her windpipe completely crushed. When she opened the door it went through to the console room. “Thank you,” she whispered, leaning heavily on the door frame, tapping it with her hand. She went inside and the door shut behind her. “Now we need to save everyone,” she whispered. The TARDIS glowed brightly as if it were responding to her.

She set the TARDIS co-ordinates and landed it next to Floor 25 with the invisibility shield turned on, she picked up the sunglasses on her way out. With some difficulty she heaved Bonnie out of the front door onto the concrete floor through the gap in the fabric. Bonnie’s skin was beginning to turn a dark red colour as she pulled her roughly towards the central lift shaft.  
She pulled Bonnie beneath the computer console on the floor. In front of the computer screens there was a large vat of red translucent liquid which Bonnie had used earlier by putting her hands inside. Clara looked down, putting on the sunglasses and grimaced, plunging both her hands into the slime, shuddering her shoulders. 

Clara was able to access the computer mainframe using Bonnie’s biometric credentials and then, she searched for a way to switch off the liquid that was inside her and all of the people. After ten minutes of searching she found schematics with the help of the sunglasses. It showed the chemical composition of the liquid, it appeared some sort of cleansing fluid with Zygon nanobots inside, controlled by a program from the network.

She searched the mainframe to disable it, now the telepathic network had been turned off. She found a panel which could turn off the nanobots, watching as a bar on the screen wound down afterwards. She felt tingly for a few minutes and then the vat of liquid forced her hands out. The computer screens shut down and then dissolved into the gloop.

Clara shuddered as she wiped her hands down the leg of her jeans. The sonic sunglasses displayed a message in small writing on the inside. ‘9,986,134 PEOPLE SAVED.’ 

“Yes!” she whispered, doing a mini fist pump. She grimaced as a wave of pain hit her through the arm at the sensation. Clara staggered back into the TARDIS, closing the door behind her. She walked slowly back into the console room, landed the TARDIS on the rooftop of her apartment block and then sat up against one of the control units on the edge. She felt herself drifting into a deep sleep, exhausted with injury.

Clara woke up to find Ashildr shaking her roughly on her shoulder. She half opened her eyes against the harsh white light of the room.

“Clara, are you awake?”

“I am now,” she whispered, stretching out her arms and legs.

“Why are you whispering?”

“Crushed windpipe, remember?” Clara pointed at her neck.

“Oh yeah, what about Bonnie? Where is she?” asked Ashildr, looking around.

“Gone, I shot her-”

“You shot her? I didn’t think you had it in you, Clara,” interrupted Ashildr, “I wish I’d been here to see that!”

“- and then I dumped her in the building.” Clara was struggling to make any sounds.

“Nice, like a bit of body dumping, I’d have thrown her out of the door.” Ashildr laughed. “Thanks for your note by the way, ‘She’s lying, play Viking,’ you even had time to make it rhyme, ‘I can save them, come back to mine when you’re done. Sorry about the fall’,” Ashildr rolled her eyes. “Subtle, the old handshake trick.”

Clara tried to laugh. She choked out, “Where?” 

“Where did I fall?” Ashildr asked. Clara nodded in response. “I ended up impaled on an iron fence a few streets away,” she pointed at the holes in her top.

“Ouch,” Clara said, coughing.

“Could have been worse.”

Clara smiled at her and shrugged her shoulders, holding a hand out to Ashildr to help her up. She stood next to the TARDIS console but felt lightheaded, so they went back out to the diner.

“We need chairs in there,” Clara croaked, pointing to the console room as she sat in one of the booths, swinging her feet around to put them up. Ashildr picked up the upended bar stools and placed them back in their correct position in front of the counter.

“Does this kitchen provide us food?” asked Ashildr, disappearing into the back.

Clara looked at her hands, seeing the bruises on her wrists starting to turn slightly yellow at the edges. On closer inspection she noticed an electric yellow and neon orange light coming from them. Clara tried to shout out to Ashildr but couldn’t raise more than a whisper, so she banged the silver napkin holder on the table.

“What? What’s the matter?” said Ashildr from the kitchen. She paced back towards Clara.

Clara’s hands were glowing bright yellow, red and orange. The light began to spread up her arms, and she felt an intense tingling sensation in her fingers.

“What’s happening to you?” said Ashildr, taking a few tentative steps back.

Clara shook her head, shrugging, moving out of the booth. She held her hands up to her face, watching the tips of her fingers radiate the yellow glow. It spread across her body, emitting through her clothes for several minutes until it faded.

Clara looked at her wrists, the bruises had faded away. She saw clean skin through the rips in her jeans where she had been shot earlier. She took the bandage off her arm, finding only smooth skin beneath it.

“I think,” Clara paused with the realisation she could speak again, “I think I’ve just regenerated, or something.”

“What -“

“Oh no you don’t, no, no, no...” she interrupted and looked around quickly, picking up the silver napkin holder on the table next to her, “I hope that doesn’t mean,” she looked at herself in the reflection and breathed a sigh of relief, “thank god.”

“What are you talking about?”

“The Doctor, he regenerates, a bit like what’s happened to me, but when it happens it changes his face. I guess this TARDIS likes me,” Clara said, smiling.

“Or, the Time Lords are trying to keep you alive,” Ashildr pointed at her, “so you can actually die, you know, before you died.”

“It did let me get very injured before it healed me though, I’m going to have to be careful,” said Clara.

“At least we’ve avoided a trip to the hospital,” Ashildr said, nodding.

“That deserves a drink, wonder if this place has anything stronger than lemonade,” Clara said as she walked behind the counter.

“Didn’t you find some whiskey earlier?” Ashildr pointed at the glass on the table.

“Oh... so that was Coke,” Clara laughed. 

“What’s Coke?” Ashildr asked, curious.

“Fizzy drink, very, very bad for you, full of sugar, but really, really nice,” Clara said, smiling, “It looks like we’re going to have to go to some intergalactic off licence. You know, the Doctor’s TARDIS had a drinks cupboard, I found it after about three weeks travelling with him. Not wishing to prejudge the situation here but I think setting up a drinks cabinet in one of those white things needs to be on our list of improvements.” Clara looked to the side, and said seriously, “wait, are you old enough to drink? Do I need to ask you for ID?”

“Very funny,” Ashildr mocked laughter. “Hang on,” she said suddenly, moving round to one of Clara’s suitcases. She returned with two bottles of white wine, placing them on the counter. “I found these in your flat.”

“Ashildr,” Clara said with a raised eyebrow, “I think we are going to get along very, very well.”

“Either that or I’m trying to get you drunk,” said Ashildr, laughing. “Which I am not... by the way,” she clarified.

Clara laughed. “Next time make sure it’s cold, so still room for improvement,” she said picking up one of the bottles. She found two wine glasses behind the counter and poured out two large measures. “Ice... where is the ice...” she dropped two cubes into each glass and offered one to Ashildr.

“Thank you,” she said, taking it and looking at the liquid as she swirled the ice cubes around. They reverberated on the outside of the glass.

Clara held up her wine towards Ashildr. “To...” Clara paused, thinking, “to... the next adventure.”

“The next adventure,” Ashildr agreed, clinking her glass against Clara’s.

They sat in silence for a few minutes, sipping their drinks, taking stock of the day’s events. Clara drained her glass and set it on the counter hatch.

“Come on, let’s get out of here, we need to go shopping,” Clara said picking up the Doctor’s guidebook from the floor, walking off towards the console room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THE END.
> 
> Thanks for reading everyone! 
> 
> Click [here](http://archiveofourown.org/works/6061582/chapters/13895272) for the next chapter :-)


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